Immigration

Bernie Sanders is not for open borders but he is for decriminalizing anyone who crosses the border illegally, giving them free healthcare, free K-12 education, free college tuition, a path to citizenship and after they get here $15 per hour to work. That is not much of a wage but it is two or three times what they earn in their home countries. Most importantly they get to live in the greatest county in the history of the world offering them rights under the constitution, freedoms that many do not have. There are literally millions possibly billions of people who would like to have such a life and they will be drawn to America. A better solution is to set up a legal immigration program and enforce it but politics is in the way.

Marx

The birth of socialism is generally attributed to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The basis of this new concept is stated in the oft used phrase, from each according to their means and to each according to their needs. Marx said that as the gap between rich and poor became great enough the poor would revolt. What Marx did not anticipate was Henry Ford. Marx never dreamed that the people who made the goods could buy the goods they made. This led to an expanding middle class and the growth of capitalism. Socialism is always appealing since it strives for equality especially of income. It usually has its start in a county where the people are very poor and a charismatic leader proposes taking from the rich and giving to the poor. If the leader is successful it means the end of the free market. It means that the people will own the means of production. Step two is the transfer of ownership from the people to the government and that is communism. The Soviets tried central planning and held on for 70 years before it failed. It removes competition and avoids the unpleasantness of winners and losers.

Student debt

Currently 45 million Americans have student debt and the total debt is $1.7 trillion dollars so each student has $37,700 in debt. Senator Sanders says he will forgive all student debt. If that doesn't get 45 million votes he doesn't deserve to win. Politicians are always buying votes but this must be the granddaddy of all buys.

Sanders Warren

On Morning Joe today they questioned why Senators Sanders and Warren both proposed universal healthcare but only Warren suffered in the polls. They felt it was sexist but it might have been how each candidate presented their plan. Warren for example said her plan would cost $52 trillion dollars and Sanders said he would pay for his plan by taxing the rich. It appears that the best answer to how much something will cost is to say tax the rich.

Russian exports

The latest political storm centers around Putin trying to help one candidate or the other. From an economic standpoint Russia would be better off with Sanders. 60% of Russia's GDP comes from exports of oil and natural gas. The US is the largest producer of fossil fuels and Sanders wants to switch to wind and solar while Trump wants to increase fracking. Econ 101 says that when the supply decreases the price increases. Does Putin want higher prices for his exports?

Rationing health care

Candidate Bloomberg poked the hornets nest when he suggested that a 95 year old person should be denied cancer treatment. After allowing time for the hysteria to reside, calmer minds began to explain in more detail. The world of today does not have unlimited resources and healthcare is no exception. Logic concludes that full healthcare for all citizens is limited by cost benefit ratios and this problem is exasperated as new technology offers more expensive treatments. As people age their health cost increase and a high percentage of these cost occur after age 65. Once people come to the conclusion that not everyone can be treated without regards to cost then the realism of rationing comes into play. The next question then is who decides who gets what and therein lies the rub. As things stand now those with lots of money can get the best treatment. If Bill Gates gets sick he can buy the best care using the latest technology but this is not the case for the rest of us. This whole concept makes people uncomfortable but shouting down those who bring it up will not solve the problem.aaaaaaaaaaa

Bernie riots

In the run up to the 2016 presidential election a number of prominent pundits suggested that there would be riots in the streets if Trump lost but since he won that prediction was never tested. Similar talk is now brewing in regards to Bernie Sanders. The thinking is that if he gets a plurality but not a majority and if the DNC uses super delegates to bring in some savior the Bernie people will riot. The best thing that could happen to the democrats is for Bernie to win a majority of the delegates before the convention. If they are faced with a brokered convention and the DNC has to go to the second ballot and use the super delegates there will be a lot of angry Bernie voters. Whether they turn violent or not will be tested.

Bloomberg home loans

In the post war decades many vets were looking to follow the American dream and become home owners. There were financial requirements regarding down payment and income. Many qualified for FHA loans which meant 3.5% down but many others could not meet the monthly payment rule of the principal and interest payment plus insurance and taxes not exceeding 28% of gross income. Throughout the 50's and 60's home ownership grew at record levels but low income people were left out. Many low income Blacks applied for loans but were declined because the could not meet the 28% rule. So many were turned down that a practiced developed called red lining. On a map of the city certain areas had red circles drawn around them indicating that if a person came into the bank seeking a loan and they lived in that area they were automatically turned down. In 1977 The Community Reinvestment Act was passed saying that red lining was illegal. This set the stage for President Clinton who in the 80's declared that the government should help lower income people become home owners. Clinton told HUD director Henry Cisneros to use creative financing to increase home ownership. Over the next few years standards were lowered and came to the extreme of NINA loans. No income and no assets became the norm and many people were given loans who could not afford them and when the mortgage crisis hit in 2006 most of these NINA loan defaulted. This was only a minor part of the problem which was exacerbated by banks bundling these loans and selling them around the world as investments. Candidate Bloomberg has suggested that home owners defaulting caused the crisis and he forgets about the major part that banks played in this debacle

Bloomberg voters

Voters have always been divided into two groups. Those who vote for the candidate and those who vote for the party and for the later the candidate is not important. Today on Morning Joe they all agreed that over the next few months the party must decide who they are and what they stand for, with the implied answer being that what ever they come up with we are for it. In other words the people on the show are committed party voters and willing to hold their nose and vote for the nominee. This type of thinking is further pushed this year when the any body but Trump strategy is leading the cause. Their main concern was Bloomberg whom they view as the old white guy billionaire who was for stop and frisk and mistreats women. They fear this may be a bridge to far for many voters who will then opt to stay home.

Chinese

When the Coronavirus was first uncovered the Chinese government kept it a secret. In early January China reported the virus to the United Nations and on January 31st Trump banned all flights from China. Since 20,000 people per day come to the United States from China it was critical that this ban be put in place. At least the press did not accuse the US of being anti-Chinese.

English

Several years ago, I spent some time in Thailand and I looked at jobs in the paper and found out that most jobs paid about $2 per hour but some, where English was required paid $4. Yesterday Senator Klobuchar changed her mind and said English should not be the official language of the US. This is what happens when politics gets in the way of common sense. When the early immigrants came to American they settled in groups in various cities and the first generation had a difficult time with the language. There was never a large enough number in any one group to cause the country to make exceptions to language. More recently so many Spanish speaking immigrants have arrived that they have caused a change in the language and thus we have dual languages on many business phone lines. While this may be politically correct it is not helpful to those new immigrants when it comes to employment. All schools have English second language courses and student in those classes want to learn and this will help them to get better paying jobs. This will help the students to help other family members to learn English and economics dictates that the emphasis should be on learning English.

Hilary VP

The anybody but Trump syndrome expressed by many democrats may be tested. The newest star on the horizon is former NYC mayor Bloomberg. He is a 77 year old white billionaire who used to be a republican. He has chosen to by pass early voters and uses billions of his own money to promote his message. He is primed to take over as Biden sinks and his main message is can defeat Trump. The latest rumor is that Bloomberg wants Hilary as his running mate. Bloomberg will be 86 at the end of his second term and she will be a spry 80 and raring to go. Stand by.

Placing polcie

Former Mayor Bloomberg is in hot water over a problem that many mayors face. If you find that most of the crime occurs is certain neighborhoods and you place most of your police in those areas you will arrest a lot of people in those areas. When you do that, statistics will show that you are arresting a disproportionate number of minorities. If you remove the police from those areas crime will increase and people living there will demand more protection.

Stuff for votes

Many democrats find themselves in a quandary when it comes to Bernie Sanders. They like the fact that he remains constant in his beliefs but are concerned about his reliance on government. He says that we need a government for all the people not just for the few and that makes sense and is what most people would like. He does not promote better higher paying jobs for people but rather redistribution of wealth. His plan involves using the government as a middle man to take money from one group and give it to another in the form of benefits, which his detractors refer to as free stuff. This practice of what some call buying votes is predominately displayed by most politicians. Businesses get depreciation, farmers get subsidies, homeowner get interest deduction, oil companies get depletion allowances and low income people get tax credits. Helping low income people is admirable but a good paying job is preferable to a government check. A good job makes people less reliant on government and raises their self esteem and thus makes it more difficult to trade free stuff for votes.

Natural gas is the solution

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's latest energy report notes that, from 2005 to 2017, U.S. energy related emissions of carbon dioxide plunged by 861 million metric tons, 14% drop. It's both a result of the decline due to the Great Recession and the fracking revolution. Over the same period, how did the rest of the world do? Emissions rose by 21% to 6.04 billion metric tons over the 12 years, mostly due to booming economic growth in India and China, where coal-fired energy output continues to expand. US energy sources in 2018 were: Oil 37% Natural gas 29% Coal 14% Nuclear 9% Wind 2.3% Solar 0.6% In 2008 coal was at 48%. While wind and solar get all the headlines, replacing coal with natural gas is the solution.

Government employees

Trump's new budget recommends a 1.9% increase in pay for federal workers and a 3% increase for military people. Congress is suggesting 3 to 5% for federal employees. Salaries for federal workers are lower than those in the private sector but benefits for government employees are better. Trump's plan calls for the contribution to retirement for federal employees to be raised to equal those in the private sector. This continues the past trend of democrats offering more to federal employees than republicans. Data shows that 70% of political contributions by federal employees go to democrats.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the fuel of the future but only after controlled fusion is developed. To use hydrogen today is a waste of energy since the electrolysis of water is too expensive and uses far more energy than it saves. In the interim the best way to tackle the problems of climate change is to use natural gas for power plants and transportation. The average person is not concerned about climate change at least based on their life style. For most people the concern about climate change is political not environmental.

Sanders campaign

On Morning Joe today the main topic was Bernie Sanders and the entire eight panel group was bubbling over with enthusiasm. It is interesting to watch Joe a former conservative republican, offer such high praise to Bernie. Since Trump defied all odds to win Joe thinks that others can do the same. Bernie who is not a democrat and pushes for government control in areas like healthcare, free college tuition, pay off college debt, housing for all, expand social security benefits, and the new green deal. Joe was exited by the large crowd at Sander's rally but it was preceded by a free rock concert which is good strategy since they can get names of young people. Joe pointed out that Sanders rise started after his heart attack and when Cortez joined his campaign. Not too long ago the health of a presidential candidate was more important than it is today.

Loyalty and leaks in the Trump administration

When a new president takes office there is a rush to replace the old staff with new people who are loyal to the new president. Trump having no experience on how government operates did not see this a priority. Many articles were written about the slow pace of replacing leadership not only in the White House but in other agencies. The result was that many left overs from the Obama administration stayed on the job much longer than the normal rate of replacement. These people found it necessary to shift their loyalties from Obama to Trump and many found this difficult and in some cases unpleasant. Some say this contributed to the extraordinary amount of leaking that occurred. Prime example the conversation between Trump and the PM of Australia conducted shortly after the election was published in the Washington Post and this type of thing became common place in Trumps first year and continues to some degree today.

Natural gas the magic bullet

The amount of CO2 produced varies by the type of fuel used. 215 pounds of CO2 is produced for each million BTU's of energy when coal is burned. 117 pounds of CO2 is produced for each million BTU's when natural gas is the fuel. If as much emphasis were placed on replacing coal fired power plants with natural gas as there is in developing wind and solar the results would have a major impact in the fight for climate change. 160 pounds of CO2 is produced for each million BTU's when gasoline is burned. Replacing gasoline with natural gas in the transportation industry would be another giant step toward tackling the problems of climate change. While there are 23 million vehicles running on natural gas around the world in the United States there are only 175,000 out of 271 million vehicles. Natural gas not only lowers CO2 emissions, it allows engines to run more efficiently and does not produce acid rain chemicals or heavy metals like mercury and lead.

Trump changes

Candidate Trump promised to be a disruptor and he has succeeded. He has turned the republican party up side down and has tied the democratic party in knots. The national press has become an advocacy group and the bureaucracy is in turmoil. Overseas unhappy partners are being asked to contribute their fair share to their own defense, to NATO and to the United Nations. Trade deals are being realigned as tariffs are used as bargaining chips. The establishment is being slowly disassembled and career diplomats are running for cover. It is Trump against the democrats, the never-Trumpers, the national press, and the bureaucrats and through it all he has survived. Numerous times his demise was predicted as bomb shell after bomb shell exploded in the news and somehow after the smoke clears there he is still standing. The list of his changes is long and filled with controversy as half the people see the positives and the other half the negatives and neither side understands the other.

Adlai and Ike

In the 50's when I was in college, I was politically actively campaigning for Adlai Stevenson and we got our news from the papers. I would go to the library and read yesterdays St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Chicago Tribune and nothing has changed. Those two papers were worlds apart on all things politic. Nothing has changed over the years as was brought home today watching Fox and MSNBC. Fox proclaimed the speech as a litany of Trumps accomplishments and Morning Joe said it was a litany of his lies. I bring this up to point out that each generation thinks things are worse than they have ever been but in fact things are like they have always been. I remember one debate between Ike and Adlai when the big news the next day was that Adlai had a hole in the bottom of his shoe.

Amazon give away

Last Friday Amazon stock rose 7% and Jeff Bezos made $8 billion dollars in one day. That is not fair but I have a solution. There are 400,000 people over age 82 who are still working and he should give that money to them which means they will each get $20,000. Don't ask me why only those working over age 82 should get the money as it was based on a very complicated algorithm that only a few of us very smart people can understand.

Boomer wealth transfer

When ever a discussion of the annual deficit comes up, the experts say that the current generation is passing on their debt to their children and that is true. What is not brought up is the transfer of wealth from them to their children. This transfer of wealth from the baby boomers is the largest in history. It is calculated that the boomers will transfer $68 trillion dollars to their children. If social security had been privatized as was suggested many years ago the transfer of wealth would be much higher.