Climate change

Joe is a hard working guy who cares about our planet and he is on the way home from a climate change rally where several speakers told of the pending disaster if changes aren't forthcoming. Joe arrives at his 2,500 square foot home sitting on a large lot in the burbs 20 miles from where he commutes to work each day in his SUV. On weekends Joe goes to his lake cabin where he spends time landscaping another big lawn. In the afternoon Joe and his friends go water skiing using his 50 horse Merc. Every evening they cook out some stakes or chops. Once or twice a year Joe and his family hop into their van and take a 3,000 mile vacation criss-crossing the country viewing sites. Joe is home this evening wondering when someone is going to do something about climate change. There's a little Joe in all of us.

Communism

At the end of WW2 there were 50 communist countries and communism was on the rise around the world. Khrushchev said in 1956 referring to the United States, we will bury you. Today Khrushchev's son is now an American citizen living in Connecticut and there are only five countries left under communism. Most countries in the western hemisphere have economic systems that are part capitalism and communism. First a definition. Under socialism the people own the means of production and under communism the government owns the means. Today in the United States we are almost exclusively a free market capitalist country. The VA and Medicaid are run by the government and thus represent communism in America but Medicaid is partly paid for by local government so it is not a true form of communism. Medicare is administered by government but people paid into this program and services are provided by private companies. Social security is run by the government but beneficiaries paid into this program so it is more like insurance. Other western countries are similar to the United States but have more government programs most notably national health care. North Korea comes as close to communism as any country were private property ownership is forbidden but even there some exceptions occur.

Rationing

The question is what will replace Obamacare. Allow all of those who are currently covered by Obamacare to be a part of Medicaid which never had a preexisting condition clause. The cost is free to low income and has a sliding fee for those with incomes below four times the poverty rate. All remaining private plans will remain in force for both corporate and individual plans. Cost can be lowered by selling insurance across state lines, lower drug cost and limit punitive damages in medical law suits. The big money savings is in end of life care. 25% of a persons life time health care cost occur in the final year of life. This means rationing. Here is a quote from Economist Thomas Sowell concerning rationing. “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” For example: Should a 93 year old man with a bad liver get a heart transplant. Then you work your way down from there. Rationing is already done but rarely discussed.

Marx

Less than 200 years ago Karl Marx introduced the concept of socialism. It was a time of great income disparity or as Dickens said, it was the best of times and the worst of times. Marx wanted to do something to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. He wrote a simple pamphlet explaining his ideas and it spread quickly among the poor and downtrodden. His idea was to spread the wealth around and it led to two world wars and the death of hundreds of millions. This was followed up with 40 years of cold war during which time countries like North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela continued down the socialist path. What Marx failed to see was the industrial revolution and how the free market enabled the poor to purchase the goods they produced. When Henry Ford introduced the assembly line it allowed the people who made the cars to buy the cars. This concept carried over into a vast array of consumer goods and today 200 million Americans live in their own homes, a fact that would have astounded Marx. Free market capitalism is based on equal opportunity and socialism is based on equal results. A young women in congress, who has a much louder voice than a pamphlet, is now sounding the socialist clarion call and her ideas have the same appeal that they have had throughout history and her words should not be taken lightly.

College degree

When the affirmative action program came out in the early 70's, I was working in the production plants and was given the task of making sure my plant had a diverse group of employees. In a few years this idea spread to universities and that worked for the first year but then trouble. It turned out that minority students who were place in Ivy League school could not do the work. This embarrassing situation had to be corrected so the course work was dumb ed down and this was the beginning of what became known as grade inflation and that continues to this day. The students who were recently allowed in USC would have flunked if it were not for this. Yesterday recent graduates were interviewed and one young lady said she graduated two years ago and could not find a job. When asked what she studied she said she majored in theater arts. I am not sure what this is but it does not sound like there would be many jobs in that area. She might have been better off to just go to work after high school. Students going to college today have to consider their future. If you are in engineering, science, business, nursing, or teaching you can probably use your education to get a job but many other areas of study that is not the case. If I had two young people applying for a job and one was a recent graduate in theater arts who was back home living with her parents who had just spent a 100 grand on her schooling, or another woman who graduated from high school and went to work in beginner low paying jobs who learned how to pay her own light bill, I would not give much weight to the college degree.

Lawn care

There is a weather man on the local TV that is very concerned about climate change. He lives in the burbs where all the lots are two acres or more and there are no ugly wind mills or solar panels and god forbid a dandelion should pop up. Most of these homes have sprinklers. Every weekend in the United States, fifty-four million Americans mow their lawns, which uses eight-hundred million gallons of gas per year. That is as much as 2 million cars. Add to that the amount of water, fertilizers and herbicides and all of this is carried into the rivers and lakes. Talking about climate change like so many other issues is all about what the other guy should do to tackle the problem. At one time I worked in a lab at a wastewater treatment plant and every spring our microbes would bloom as this years supply of lawn chemicals washed into the plant and then into the river.

New NATO

NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded after WW 2 to offset the rise in power by the Soviet Union. The strength of this group has been the threat of United States military intervention and thus the US has invested heavily in military bases around the world an in particular in Europe. The major economic power in Europe is Germany and they recently announced they could not pay the 2% of GDP to NATO as required. At the same time they agreed to a new gas pipeline from Russia which would allow Germany to control 80% of the gas coming into Europe. Germany along with Europe could purchase gas from the US but it would be more expensive. So the battle between money and allegiance to NATO was won by money this round. Maybe it is time to reevaluate NATO.

Trumpers

The independent voters who helped to elect Trump have been the subject of much discussion and analysis. The consensus opinion is that this group felt left out as they watched their good jobs go overseas and only received promises by candidates each year to help solve the problem. While this is certainly one of the main causes there are other reasons. These people felt that they and their way of life was under attack. Part of their culture was ridiculed. Their daily activities were looked down on and some things close to their hearts were made fun of. For some it was their accent, for others the way they dressed, for others their fun things to do like bowling or car racing. Most seriously it was their God and their guns. It is bad enough to take away their livelihood but then to add insult on top of that was too much. Bill Maher recently said that Trump voters want to be like him. Maher made headlines on his show "Real Time with Bill Maher" this week, telling viewers that red-state voters are "so pissed off" because they want to be like coastal, liberal voters. 

Trucks

Climate change is in the news and most Americans say they are concerned but their words speak louder than their actions. Last year light trucks (which included SUV's and pickups) captured 70% of the market. The 5.4 million cars sold last year represented the fewest since they had tail fins, in 1958. How do you stand on this issue? Just look in your garage.

Respect

Most of the discipline problems in schools are caused by the student who has not learned respect for authority. This is one of the many lessons children learn from their parents. The process is simple. The children are exposed to firm but expanding guide lines as they grow. When you are four years old, you cannot play in the street by yourself. When you are eight years old, you cannot go downtown by yourself and when you are 12 years old you cannot paint the house by yourself. As they mature they are learning respect for the parents authority. When this is learned in the early years it carries with them to school where they learn respect for the authority vested in the position of teacher. Note it does not say respect for the teacher, a person they have just met. You don't have to respect the governor but you respect the office of governor. In the military you don't salute the man but you salute the uniform. After you leave school you learn respect for the boss and for the police officer but in each case it is not person but the position the person holds. It can be both but usually respect for the person must be earned. Students who are fortunate enough to learn this valuable lesson at home will not be disruptive in the classroom.

Border fix

One possible solution to the problems at the border would be to go to the local authorities along each section of the border and ask them to work with the border patrol and come up with a plan for that particular area and then present that to the federal authorities. The local people would be most familiar with the local problems and less likely to get bogged down in national politics. The total cost of all plans would be evaluated and money appropriated based on need. The areas with the most illegal crossings would receive priority status. This would tend to funnel traffic into more manageable groups. This, of course, like all plans will only work if the goal is to solve the problem.

FGM

During the months following 9/11 there was a lot of discussion about the differences in cultures and how we should not interfere. In many respects that is true but there are limits. There is a practice in certain countries called female genital mutilation and that was made illegal by a federal law in 1996. This law was struck down by a federal judge in 2018. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman threw out mutilation and conspiracy charges against all the defendants. He ruled that a 1996 federal law that bans female genital mutilation was unconstitutional because Congress didn’t have the power to regulate the behavior in the first place. 24 states have strong laws that forbid this practice. State Rep. Mary Franson MN introduced legislation that would hold parents responsible for such activity but the bill is stalled. There is apprehension on the part of some that this may be seen as anti-Muslim or interfering in cultural practices.

Page

A short story of Carter Page. Going back to 2011 when he worked in Russia as a energy investor and adviser, the FBI suspected him of various unsavory deals. They got their first FISA warrant on him in 2014 but it led to nothing. Trump hired Page as a foreign policy and shortly after the FBI procured another FISA warrant to tape his conversations. To get the warrant they had to show that he violate federal criminal law. He has not been charged with any crime and his case is all but forgotten but he left behind a legacy. Once they had permission to tap his phone they were allowed to listen in on the conversations of those he talked with. This is called the two hop method. This opened the door for the FBI to listen in on almost everyone in the Trump campaign. How difficult is it to get warrant. Over the entire 33-year period, the FISA court granted 33,942 warrants, with only 12 denials – a rejection rate of 0.03 percent of the total requests.

Green

A practical path to the green dream. 1. Continue to move power plants to natural gas. 2. Build wind mills and solar fields next to these plants and run power for those when the sun shines and the wind blows using the gas as back up power. 3. Continue research on quick charge batteries for electric cars which will not sell until you can charge the battery in the time it takes to fill the gas tank. 4. Continue research on methane hydrate to replace fracking and offset CO2 production. 5. Move to natural gas for transportation including cars, trucks, locomotive and planes. 6. Use small nuke plants to power ocean vessels like they presently do with submarines. 7. Encourage solar and wind for homes and businesses. 8. Most important continue research on all types of power production. 9. The ultimate goal is controlled fusion which will launch the hydrogen economy. The desserts of the world will become giant gardens growing several crops each year. There will be an unlimited supply of fresh water and the only by product will be distilled water.

Credit

Here are five ways that congress could make some headway. Infrastructure offer $2 for each $1 put in by the states Immigration. The wall for path to citizenship for the dreamers Prescription drugs....charge prices similar to overseas or have the government start importing drugs. Climate change..move to natural gas for transportation Move toward level playing field on import/export taxes These are five areas where agreement could be reached but will not because the president will get credit. This is the new way that government operates. When Obama was president the republicans thwarted him at every opportunity and now the democrats are doing that with Trump. Recall Clinton came into office just as the dot com boom was starting and it ended just after he left office. This caused the economy to boom and Clinton got the credit even though he had little to do with it. This happened because politicians could not stop it. Any economic progress will have to be instituted by the private sector as the government currently acts as a deterrent.

Kids see

As I watch the college scandal unfold, my first thought was, what are these children learning from their parents. Many years ago I wrote a short essay illustrating how parents are not aware of what their children learn from their behavior. Mr. Smith was filling out his taxes and little Johnny was watching and he said the neighbor paid him $1,000 to help build a fence but since it was cash he didn't have to declare it because the government would never catch him. That summer they were on a family trip and Mr. Smith got a speeding ticket but he said he would not have to pay it because they would not be coming through that area again. Later they had a storm and the next day Smith went up on the roof and pulled down his TV antenna. He told Johnny he could turn in a claim to the insurance company saying the wind blew it down and he could get a new antenna. Smith took his son to the hockey game but he didn't buy a ticket for him, he just pushed him through the turnstile. One day when Johnny was a teen he was arrested for shop lifting and his father was so dissappointed. He moaned to his wife, where did we go wrong.

5 G

The future of the Internet rests on the newest technology called 5 G. Trump wants US companies to compete on the world market to maintain the US control over the Internet but China is using government funds to give their companies an advantage. China has done this with other industries like steel where government sponsored companies dumped cheap steel on the market to drive US steel companies out of business. Control over 5 G will allow China to access the information of companies around the world thus giving them control over these companies. China already steals intellectual property on a regular basis. This means that US companies spend billions on innovation and China just takes it. The government should finance research in this area so that the US can compete with China on a level playing field.

Trump budget

When Obamacare took $700 billion from Medicare it did not cut any benefits to Medicare recipients. The biggest cut about $500 billion was to fees paid to hospitals and doctors. The rest was attributed to reducing waste in the Medicare program. Trumps budget shows a $2 trillion dollar cut to Medicare and Medicaid and social security. $1.2 trillion will be cut from Obamacare and this money will be forwarded to the states to care for these Medicaid patients. This money is not eliminated but re-prioritized. The cuts in Medicare will be the same as Obama when they reduced fees paid to hospitals and doctors. There will be a $25 billion cut to social disability programs by cutting retroactive payment from 12 months to 6 months.

Meat

It is often said that humans would be better off if they ate grain directly instead of feeding it to animals and then eating the animals. This is supposed to be better for human health and for the environment. Kamala Harris, candidate for president said, 'It Is a Fact That We Can Change Human Behaviors' on ClimateChange. Yesterday the mayor of New York announced that all schools will have meatless Mondays. LA schools have done this for many years.

Don't pass it on

Antisemitism in once again in the news. It is always around but gets noticed once in a while. For older people it can slip in without them realizing what is happening. Back before the war is was common, even in polite company, to hear unpleasant remarks about Jews and sometimes the words, "those kind". A phrase like that carries a lot of psychic energy and is picked by young minds only to come out unexpectedly sixty years later. For those who were poisoned with any kind of prejudice in their youth, it may be difficult to overcome but at least try not to pass it on.

Armchair doctor

Psychologist Carl Jung spent his life helping people to better understand their sub-conscience mind which he called the shadow side. He helped people investigate this mysterious side by using dreams, fairy tales and poems. One of the ways he suggested was to observe how a person reacts to others. He pointed out that if you have a over reaction to another's behavior that it can be a clue to the shadow side. He suggests that you see in this other person a side of yourself that you are unaware of and thus taken-a-back. One way to assess this idea is to look at how different people react to Trump. He is bombastic, overbearing, egotistic and constantly bragging. If you feel comfortable with his attitude perhaps you have a shadow side that would like to step out and toot your own horn or be politically incorrect but you fear the consequences within your group. If you don't like Trump maybe you think you are greater than what you let on but keep quiet so as not to upset your peers. Playing armchair psychiatrist can be entertaining but should not be taken to serious.

MMT

It appears that neither political party is concerned about government spending and this has opened the door to what economist call Modern Monetary Theory, (MMT). The first goal in this idea is that everyone should have a job with a living wage. Since business tries to keep wages low this applies to government jobs. This can be accomplished because the government can print money and cannot be forced into bankruptcy. The believers say that since we finance wars this way we can finance social programs in the same way. Fear of inflation has always put the brakes on excessive debt but most young congress people have not experienced inflation.

Criticism

The late Charles Krauthammer said that republicans think democrats are wrong and democrats think republicans are evil. This has come up a number of times, the most recent is that the wall is immoral. Criticism has come under threat. Challenge the policies of Israel and you are anti-Semitic. Challenge the wall and you are anti-immigrant. This past week Minnesota Representative Omar got caught in that trap. Nancy Pelosi came to her defense saying that Omar was misinterpreted. Some in the press did not believe Pelosi pointing out that in 2012 Omar made it clear that she was not a fan of Israel. Here is her quote: The tweet in which she used the word “hypnotized,” reads, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. This caught my attention because of the use of the word, "evil".

Venezuela

5,000 people per day are leaving Venezuela and 3 million are now in Columbia. These people have little to eat and no place to live. Pictures show they are in dire straits. It is the same distance from Columbia to Mexico as it is from Mexico to the United States. Will they be the next group coming to escape poverty and oppressive government?

Volvo

Volvo is a car company in Sweden that is owned by the Chinese company Geely. Last year they produced 571,000 cars sold 100,000 in the US. The US charges a 2.5% import tax. If the US ships cars to Sweden they charge a 35% tax. US car imports by Sweden are negligible with Ford selling a small number.

Paris accord

Canada is much like China and India in that they signed the Paris Climate Agreement but it was just for show. Despite years of lofty promises from government officials, a recent Auditors General report shows that Canada has made little progress towards its climate action goals. This follows a United Nations (UN) report that says Canada is in danger of missing its 2030 Paris Agreement targets by a wide margin. Even Germany is not living up to its promises. The new coalition no longer aims to reach the German 2020 climate target in time. With this announcement, Germany officially steps down as an international climate champion and undermines the Paris Agreement as a whole.

Tax forms

With the advent of the new tax law, the long promised post card size tax return is now a reality. For the family of four earning $60,000 they should tell their employer not to withhold any tax. They put the amount in box 1 on their W-2's on line one and then subtract the standard deduction of $24,000 and the chart shows their tax due is $3,600. Then add back the $4,000 child tax credit for a refund of $400. That's it. About 90% of all taxpayers will use the standard deduction including most retirees.

Budget

Government Spent Took in Fiscal year 2017 $3,980 billion $2,740 billion Fiscal year 2018 $4,441 billion $2,760 billion The deficit is caused by spending too much not by not collecting enough. If you are wondering why the deficit for 2018 shows $1,681 billion but the government reported $779 billion deficit it is because of the way the government has been reporting things since 1990. Everyone assumes that the national debt is an accumulation of the annual deficit is mistaken. This is because some items like social security are considered off budget and not counted in the annual deficit but still counted in the overall debt.

Hire American

Trump industries employs 23,000 people and 80% of the 1,000 people who work at Mar a Lago are Latios. The earn between $12 and $14 per hour. Senator Sanders said that Trump talks about hiring Americans but only one American was hired last year at Mar a Lago when thousands applied. Sanders later added that Trump repeatedly tells Americans "how much he hates immigrants and how much he loves American workers" while saying that “last year, Trump chose to hire only one American worker even though thousands of Americans wanted to work at his Mar-a-Lago resort."

Poor people

Sometimes when I look around the country, I am surprised at how the lives of poor people have improved during my life time. My wife was born on a farm in North Dakota during the depression in a family of 16 children. They had no running water, no indoor plumbing and no electricity. They wore hand me down clothes that their mother made and for birthdays they had a cake which they shared. Imagine hanging on to the rope line to make it safely to the out house so you would get lost and freeze to death in the back yard during a blizzard. Entertainment was going to church on Sunday, weather permitting. Babies were born at home and the only vaccine was small pox so the kids got all the childhood diseases that kids today don't have to worry about. The closest neighbor was a way off so families learned to depend on each other. In many places around the world life is not much different today but America is the land of opportunity. The future is bright for those who are willing to take advantage of the freedoms we enjoy.

Gays

Some Christians are opposed to homosexual behavior based on their interpretation of the bible and they are often castigated for these beliefs. Most Muslims consider homosexual behavior as unacceptable but they are normally not criticized. This is an example of how politics has infiltrated religion. Normally the Christians are conservatives in their politics and Muslims are liberal in their politics. Thus the issue gets lost in the fog.

Gender neutral

Avant garde couples are raising their children to be gender neutral. This describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another. This is a repeat of the way some mothers during the 60's raised their children. Little boys were given dolls and girls got trucks. Colors were the same for both. Many names for both sounded the same with girls names adding an i or y on the end such as bobbi and joey. As much as they tried the boys went back to playing with guns and the girls with dress up. Perhaps this time it will be different. Over the past 50 plus years gender differences have disappeared as women entered the work place and continued their education. These changes have benefited society as a whole but there still remains many ways in which the sexes are different, some good and some not so good. In our striving for equality let's not through out the baby with the bathwater.

Legal immigrant vaccines

If you are a legal immigrant You must receive the following vaccinations before being admitted as a permanent residence. Mumps, measles, rubella PolioTetanus and diphtheria toxoids Pertussis Haemophilius influenza type B Hepatitis B Varicella Influenza b Pneumococcal pneumonia Rotavirus Hepatitis A Meningococca.. Also certain diseases that may make you subject to quarantine (recently including cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers, severe acute respiratory syndromes, and novel or re emergent influenza (pandemic flu), as well as certain diseases that may pose a public health emergency of international concern when there’s a threat that you’ll bring that disease to the U.S. and the disease could affect the health of the American public.

Education

I subbed this week with a teacher who had three classes of anatomy with 10th and 11th graders. There were 71 students in all with 44 females, 34 Asian Americans one Black American male. I don't know the percentage of Asian Americans in this school but it is certainly not 48%. These students are interested in careers in medicine. The Asia students are either first or second generation brown skinned immigrants. They come from homes where 82% of the children live with both parents and education is a high priority. These families have the highest income of any group. It seems that education is more important than skin color when it comes to living the American dream.