Ginsberg

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice, who at age 85 has announced that she plans on being on the job for at least five more years. We octogenarians want all the young whipper snappers to know that we can still contribute. Go girl go!

Spying

A commentator on the news yesterday asked why Secretary Pompao was trying to encourage the people of Iran to revolt when he is upset over Russia's interference in our election. He doesn't seem to remember about the way the United States interfered with countries during the cold war. We installed and uninstalled leaders around the world, some of whom were dictators. Recall places like the Dominican Republic, Chili, El Salvador, Viet Nam, Cuba and many more. Remember our Secretary to the United Nations Jean Kirkpatrick who said he may be a dictator but he is our dictator. When people expressed surprise that Russia was trying to interfere in our elections, it reminded me of the people who were surprised to find out that Hollywood moguls like Harvey Weinstein would take advantage of upcoming starlets. Let's not forget how the US used the stuxnet virus to attack the Iranian nuke program and later it was used against the North Korean nuke program. Spying and high tech attacks are part of the world we live in.

Demographics

Over the past 40 years demographers have predicted that democrats will have an edge since most of the new growth in population is represented by the browning of America. While this theory suffered a set back in the 2016 election the trend continues. If this is true it will mean that the democratic party will regain and hold its majority in the house of representatives but the reverse will occur with the senate. The population is shifting toward urban areas and experts predict that in the near future 70% of people will live in 15 states which means that 30% of the people will live in 35 states. Since each state has two senators the shift will be toward the republicans who represent the majority in the lower population states.

Pakistan

The election in Pakistan finds a relative unknown named Imran Khan in the lead and most likely the winner. He was a former soccer star who was a well known celebrity and only recently got active in politics. He ran on the promise to clean up the good old boy network in the federal government and he is a favorite of the military and the religious leaders. He brings with him the promise of change and jobs for young people. The established political groups have attacked him as not being a legitimate winner and promise to challenge the election results. All of this has a familiar ring to it.

Cortez

Newcomer Ocasio-Cortez wins upset in Queens congressional primary. She's young, attractive and charismatic. She makes a lot of statements that are non-nonsensical and shows her inexperience but she is still attracting lots of attention. This very similar thing happened to Sarah Palin when she burst on the scene several years ago. She too made remarks showing her ignorance of the world and the world of politics. There is a major difference in the way these two are treated as individuals. With Palin the criticism became personal and she was pilloried with insults about her as a person whereas the critic of Cortez is mostly about her position on issues.

Russian walk and talk

In 2002 the US agreed to put missiles in Europe but in 2009 Obama cancelled the project after Putin threatened to start an arms war. Trump has now sold missiles to Europe. Trump has sent military weapons to The Ukraine to fight against the Russian invasion something that Obama did not do. Trump has opened drilling in Alaska and approved Canadian oil pipelines both of which will increase the supply and directly effect Russia's main source of income. The Trump military budget of $700 billion is the largest in history and it will be used to update nuke facilities. Trump has increased spending by over 40% to the European Deterrence Initiative to deter Russian aggression. Trump loosened the rules in Syria and allowed US troops to directly clash with Russian troops. Trump encouraged NATO members to increase their contributions. Trump is talking nice to the Russians but he is not acting nice.

Farm aid

The 2018 farm bill spends about $120 billion dollars per year and $96 billion goes to food programs for the poor and for schools. The rest goes to programs that help farmers. The Trump increase in import taxes will cause prices to drop so Trump wants to send $12 billion to farmers to make up for the loss but they say they want trade not aid despite the fact that the farm bill has for years provided aid.

Car imports

The United States imports 25% of all European Union cars made in the EU and 30% of all Japanese cars made in Japan. Only a small number of cars made in America are exported to the EU or Japan and thus it would be a benefit to foreign car makers to eliminate the import taxes. BERLIN—Germany’s leading auto makers have thrown their support behind the abolition of all import tariffs for cars between the European Union and the U.S. in an effort to find a peaceful solution to the brewing trade war. That would mean scrapping the EU’s 10% tax on auto imports from the U.S. and other countries and the 2.5% duty on auto imports in the U.S.  The only American made cars selling in the European Union are small Ford models. The EU governments are opposed to this since they get all of the import tax money.

Unrest

The news each day is about various forms of unrest around the country and many feel this is a sign of the end of our kind of government but these are young people who never lived through the 60's. It was a time when protesters marched through the streets on a daily basis and it went on for years. Students at Kent State were killed by national guard soldiers, reporters like Dan Rather were beaten by Chicago police, two Kennedy's and Martin King were assassinated, young men were burning their draft cards and moving to Canada. Civil law broke down in a150 large cities across the country and race riots destroyed property and in one city, Detroit, and it one riot 43 people were killed, 5,000 arrested and 1,000 buildings burned. Much of today's activity is centered around insults throughout social media and often times by elected officials who publicly attack other officials. This type of behavior while boorish and infantile is a far cry from the physical violence that took place in the 60's. Let's hope that all of this doesn't escalate.

Socialism today

Hugo Chavez was a socialist who came to power in Venezuela in 1999 and stayed until 2013. He promised to redistribute the wealth by taking over private businesses and using the profits to help the poor. He promised to redistribute land and to provide free health care. Such policies included redistribution of wealth, land reform, and democratization of economic activity via workplace self-management and creation of worker-owned cooperatives. As he increased domestic spending on many programs he built a following, called buying votes by some detractors, but foreign investors became leery of his spending which continued to increase as the price of oil fell and he succumbed to the Margaret Thatcher phase that socialism is great until you run out of other guys money which in this case was oil money. The recent interest in socialism in the US is not based on nationalizing businesses but on using company profits and wealthy taxes to provide domestic benefits such as free health care and free college tuition. The siren call of socialism has been around for many years and has been tried many times. It always sound tempting and this time is no different.

Bible

The Air Force has decided to replace the bible with a book of faith. Col. Huser tells me the Bible will be replaced with “a ‘book of faith’ containing spiritual writings and prayers from the five DoD Chaplain appointed faith groups and a sixth set of blank pages to represent those who find solace by other means.” The bible is used by Christians and Muslims and these two groups represent 4 billion people which is about two-thirds of the worlds population. This will cause some consternation on the part of many but the basic idea promoted by the Air Force is to rely on a higher power which is the foundation of AA. This simplified version of faith runs up against those who may be atheist so perhaps even a reference to a high power must be eliminated. This is one more example of the political correct idea of not offending anyone that ends up offending many.

America great

A young black woman made headlines by wearing a cap that says America was never great. She feels that America may have been great for whites but not so for blacks. There are many black Americans who have similar feelings. Even Mrs. Obama expressed reservations about Americas greatness when she said in 2008 that for the first time she was proud of America. It is difficult for a white person to step into the shoes of a black and thus statements like this are difficult to understand. Race relations have come along way in my lifetime and perhaps it would be more helpful to recognize the progress and concentrate on the future. That may be good advice for all areas of life. We cannot change the past but we can certainly make the future better.

China trade

In 2017 China's annual budget showed revenues (income) of $2.6 trillion and expenditures of $3.1 trillion for a deficit of $500 billion. That same year China had a trade surplus of $400 billion. Had it not been for the trade surplus their deficit would have been $900 billion. In 2017 the United States annual budget deficit was $700 billion with income of $3.5 trillion and expenditures of $4.2 trillion. In 2017 the US imported $2.4 trillion and exported $1.6 trillion for a $800 billion trade deficit. China with a much smaller economy has a $400 billion trade surplus and the US has a $800 deficit. If it had not been for the trade surplus China's budget deficit would have been higher than the US.

SUV's

Sales of SUV's increased 34% last year following several years of sales growth. The SUV is now the new family car and has lower mileage than sedans or coupes. This is aggravating the air pollution problem in China and other countries. Gasoline produces 14% of all CO2 production and switching to natural gas cars would reduce this to10%.

School board

San Franciscans in 2016 approved Proposition N, 54% to 46%, extending the right to vote to noncitizens. This week, the city's Department of Elections began issuing voter registration forms so qualifying noncitizens can cast their ballots in the school board elections on November 6. The law says that anyone over the age of 18 who has children in school can vote in the school board election. Here are the duties of the school board. employing the superintendent developing and adopting policies, curriculum, and the budget; overseeing facilities issues; and adopting collective bargaining agreements.

Trade schools

The federal government spends $18 billion dollars a year on 49 different job training programs and recent studies show that they are not effective. If those programs were shut down and that money was used to pay tuition and fees for employers, who send their employees to local colleges and tech schools, the people would be trained for jobs that are currently needed. Trade school tuition is about $10,000 per year and that $18 billion could train 1.8 million per year.

NATO

Recently Trump suggested that NATO countries pay their fair share and this caused a lot of concern about NATO in general. NATO was founded in 1949 and was designed to oppose any invasion especially from the Soviet Union. It started with 12 members and has expanded to the 29 member countries today. Article 5 says that if any member country is attacked the other countries will come to its aid. Among the original 12 was the small country of Iceland population 340,000. The way NATO stands today is that if Russia were to invade Iceland the United States would be required to go to war against Russia. The latest addition to NATO is Montenegro. Most Americans know very little about this country basic things like where is it and how many live there. Russia is not likely to invade either Iceland or Montenegro but they might invade one of the Baltic countries say Estonia and this would trigger a response from NATO.

Tax deductions

Governors in high income states like New York are complaining about the tax deductions for state income tax and local property tax. In the recently passed tax legislation, the state and local tax deductions will  be capped at $10,000 starting with your 2018 tax return These new laws will effect mostly upper income earners. You can deduct mortgage interest up to a $750,000 mortgage and the state income tax and local property tax together cannot exceed $10,000. In Minnesota the property tax on a $350,000 home is under $3,000. This leaves $7,000 to deduct for state income tax and that equates to a $125,000 income for married filing joint. So the new tax law effects mostly people who have incomes above $125,000 and this is about 15% of taxpayers.

Import tax

Yesterday the news around the world reported on a new trade agreement between Japan and the European Union that can truly be called free trade and should be followed by agreements with other countries. The leaders promoted the benefits of a free trade deal that is set to eliminate nearly all tariffs on products traded between Japan and the EU. The goal should be the elimination of all import taxes in all countries.

No import tax

Yesterday the news around the world reported on a new trade agreement between Japan and the European Union that can truly be called free trade and should be followed by agreements with other countries. The leaders promoted the benefits of a free trade deal that is set to eliminate nearly all tariffs on products traded between Japan and the EU. The goal should be the elimination of all import taxes in all countries.

Russia

The GDP of Russia is $1.2 trillion compared to California's $2.7 trillion. The point being that if Russia did not have the nukes they would not be meeting with anyone. They are only considered important because of their nukes and to think they would promote a nuke free world does not compute.

The pill

Now that the abortion issue is once again in the headlines it should be noted that the problem may be self correcting to a certain degree. The number of legal abortions has been declining for many years and the rate accelerated since the wide use of the morning after pill, which by the way can be taken the day before. It can prevent a pregnancy in three ways. First it can temporarily stop ovulation, second it can prevent fertilization and finally prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. It is only the third way that takes place after conception. This pill can be purchased over the counter but some states asked that women under a certain age have a prescription. The cost can be up to $50 but most states have programs where the pill is free. These pills can be purchased in advance and stored in the medicine cabinet or carried on the person. One rather dismaying statistic is that abortion rates decline when the nearest clinic is more than 100 miles away. Some feel that for a decision that is this important this is a trivial reason for having or not having an abortion.

Child immigrants

Most everyone agrees that our immigration system is in need of overhaul. One aspect of it is the way unaccompanied children are treated. Putting aside the recent uproar of 2,000 who were separated from their parents consider the total cost of caring for children. The cost of caring for immigrant children is now $775 per day according to NBC News. Most of these facilities are operated by the government but some are private non-profits and one well known is Southwest Key Programs. Founded in 1987, Southwest Key Programs aims to provide housing and education for youth and families. The nonprofit’s CEO, Juan Sanchez, is gaining monumentally from this deal. His compensation has increased drastically over the past eight years, raising from $269,000 in 2010 to $1.5 million in 2016.

Trump Russia

There is much hand wringing about Trumps one on one meeting with Putin. Reporters ask if he will bring up the Russian interference in our elections. Perhaps he should follow the example set by President Obama when he met Putin in China and told him to stop it. “So in early September when I saw president Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there were going to be serious consequences if he didn't. And in fact we did not see further tampering of the election process.” This was three months before Trump took office.

Tesla

Tesla motors is planning on building electric cars in China. China had an import tax of 25% on US cars but was planning on lowering that to 15%. Recently Trump raised import taxes on some Chinese goods so they retaliated by raising the their auto tax to 40%. Tesla could not compete with even a 15% tax so they are going to build the cars in China thus avoiding the tax. The interesting thing about this deal is that China will not require Tesla to go into a joint venture which is what China has always done in the past. This is a departure from a rather strict rule and may mean an easing of import rules in general. China normally requires the companies coming into their country to allow the Chinese government to own 51% of the company which means they have access to the company records including research and development. China is attempting to reduce air pollution by going to electric cars but they have an uphill battle since 66% of their electricity comes from coal fired power plants. They would be better served if they concentrated on changing their coal plants over to natural gas.

LNG

Over the past few years fracking has increased the amount of natural gas to where the US has become a net exporter. Much of this is going to Mexico and there the coal fired power plants are converting to natural gas and Mexico is now reducing CO2 emissions. The US has been doing this for years and now has the lowest CO2 emissions in 20 years. The US is building plants to liquefy natural gas for shipment overseas. Several European countries have built facilities to receive liquefied gas and this will help reduce their CO2 emissions. This also helps them become less dependent on gas from Russia. This increased production along with the building of liquefying plants will have a profound effect on energy use while reducing the amount of CO2 world wide.

Kerrigan

With the vote on the new Supreme Court Justice hanging in the balance will Trump followed the plan laid out by Obama when he offered Senator Landrieu $200 million dollars for her vote on Obamacare. Mary Landrieu's (D., La.) support for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Landrieu, critics believe, pledged her vote in exchange for gaining $200 million additional federal funds for Louisiana's Medicaid program. Except that, due to a drafting error, the law ended up giving Louisiana $4.3 billion in extra Medicaid funds -- more than twenty times the assigned amount. Trump is now faced with a similar situation in that Senator Collins of Maine on the fence regarding her vote for Judge Kerrigan. Without her vote Trump's nominee may not make it to the court.

Wealth tax

I have often pointed out the difference between sharing the wealth and increasing taxes. If we took all the income from the one percent and gave it to the 99% each family would receive $15,000 but if we took one half of their wealth each family would get $200,000. So one might asked why does Jeff Bozos need $120 billion dollars? Isn't one billion enough for any body? At the time I did not think any American would want to take assets from another person but that may change. In Norway for example they have a wealth tax. Wealth is a persons total assets from all sources and any amount over $120,000 is taxed at .85%. So in the case of Bezos he would owe $10 billion in wealth tax. I get the feeling that in the present state of the country many people would be OK with that.

Farm wages

On the news today was a story about farmers in Michigan who have a cherry crop ripening and need help to harvest but cannot find any pickers. Labor cost are not the most important in fruits and vegetables and perhaps he should consider paying more. Strawberries that cell for $2 have a labor cost of 34 cents. Most people would pay $2.34 if they knew that the wages of pickers would double.

Harvard

It is a common experience among many people while growing up to discover that life is not fair and most of the time they are told by their parents that life is not fair and they should adjust accordingly. For several decades the government has been trying to take steps to overcome this unfairness with mixed results. Currently one area that has come under scrutiny is Harvard University. In 2013, Harvard conducted its own internal investigation and found a bias against Asian-American applicants in its admissions process. If Harvard looked solely at academics, the investigation found, 43 percent of its incoming freshmen would be Asian-American. The true figure that year was 18.6 percent. But the university didn't act on these results or make them public. Asian-Americans are 5% of the population. To overcome this "unfairness" Harvard admission administrators are now using the subjective evaluation technique of: personal measures, such as: "positive personality," "likability ... helpfulness, courage, [and] kindness," and being "widely respected.

New Religion

Fourteen years ago I wrote an essay about a new religion and today that religion is stronger than ever and so I re-post the essay. There is a new religion spreading across the land, and it is called the religion of politics. It was born in the New Deal and matured in the Great Society. It is based on the mission principal that those who have more should give to those who have less. Its basic doctrine is fairness and its purpose is the redistribution of wealth. The determination of who gets what is not based on economic principals but rather on moral guidelines. You can find out if you are a member in this new sect by asking yourself the following question. Why is it better for the economy if the government spends my money than it is if I spend my money? If you agree that the government is the place to send your money you will justify this not on economic principals, but with moral imperatives, and you are a believer in the new religion. Upon further evaluation of your justifications you will be surprised to discover how much they sound like a fundamentalist discussing a religious concept. You will find that you are assuming a position of being on the high road. You will assume an air of moral superiority as you preach the values of fairness. Should we not feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and house the homeless? What type of heartless person could ignore the plight of those who have not? If only others were as caring as I, the world would be so much better off. What is wrong with this approach? From a theoretical sense, nothing, but from a practical sense, there are unintended consequences. When we began to give to those who were in need it was appreciated and productive, but those who were in charge of the giving got carried away with their own good deeds. They got bigger and better at what they were doing and soon it became more than a helping hand to the recipients, it became a way of life. We are now three generations into this way of life for millions of our citizens and they have come to depend on us for their survival. They no longer believe in their own ability to rise above their situation, but only wait for some new program to come to their rescue. It is like the well-meaning father who always got his son out of every difficult situation only to find that he had raised a child who could not cope with the problems of life. We have done these citizens a grave disservice, and must now take steps to recapture our original intent. We must once again promote the concept of self-reliance and the work ethic, and over several generations we can succeed in giving back the self-respect we inadvertently stole from those we meant to help

Socialism

A woman named Cortez is running for congress and she is a democratic socialist. This is not Marxist Socialism where the government owns all means of production of goods and services but more like the governments in western Europe. These countries provide more social benefits for their people than is done in the United States and this is what her campaign is about. The European Union (EU) has certain advantages in that they pay less for their defense and less for organizations like the United Nations and NATO. If the US paid an equivalent amount that would free up about $500 billion dollars per year that could be spent on social programs. The question is whether the US wants to move toward a democratic socialist government like the EU. One way to compare is the efficiency of each type of government and this is often done using the gross domestic product (GDP). The US with a population of 330 million has a GDP of $19 trillion and the EU has a population of 510 million and a GDP of $17 trillion.

Courts

Before 2003 no judge nominated by a president had ever been filibustered in the senate. When Bush 43 became president, democrats were concerned that he would appoint too many conservatives. Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said that the White House was "trying to create the most ideological bench in the history of the nation When the republicans took control of the senate the democrats for the first time in history used the filibuster to stop the appointment of Miguel Estrada and later nine other Bush appointees were filibustered. In 2013 after republicans had blocked three judge appointments the democrats changed rules allowing judges to be confirmed by a simple majority exempting Supreme Court judges. In 2017 after democrats filibustered the appointment of Neil Gorsuch the republicans changed the rules to allow approval of Supreme Court nominees. The next appointment by Trump will require only a simple majority for approval.

Court

An interesting but not well known fact about the Supreme Court is that 6 members are Catholic and 3 are Jewish. Since Gorsuch is Catholic this did not change with his appointment.