Gulf Wars

Much of the hand wringing over Afghanistan centers around the purpose for being there. It was not a war. In war you pull out all the stops and you go to win otherwise don't go. This was an action to prevent another attack on America. The US went after al qaeda and with the help of Afghan fighters defeated the group responsible for the attack on the twin towers. After that the US stayed on to help the Afghan people to defeat the Taliban the group that sponsored al qaeda. This turned into a civil war that lasted up to today where the Afghan people were defeated by the Taliban. This has been the pattern since WW 2. In Korea it was not a war and was called a police action. In Viet Nam the same thing happened. When Iraq invaded Kuwait they asked for help. With the support of large bipartisan majorities, the U.S. Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. In simple terms the US officially declared war, the first time since WW2. The US, along with a dozen allies, amassed an army of 700,000 troupes along the border and within a matter of weeks the Iraqis were driven out of Kuwait and the famous Republican Guard was decimated . At that point the United Nations decreed that the coalition should withdraw and not go after Saddam. The forces forgot they were in a war and changed course to a police action. Thus began a game of tit for tat which lasted for 8 years at which time the US turned Iraq over to a coalition government. This led to the second Gulf war which ended with the capture of Saddam. During these years the military was restricted and not allowed to use the force needed to defeat the enemy. One of the most brazen examples was how the military was prevented from destroying trucks carrying Iraqi oil up to Turkey for sale. The reason given was that they would kill the truck drivers.

Haitians

The Haitians are direct descendants of the African slave trade. Their half of the Island is one of the poorest areas in the world and many over the years have left. A good number of those went to Chili on visitor visas and just stayed. The Chileans were not very welcoming and some say for good reasons. Back in 2002, the national census found that there were 50 Haitians in Chile; by the next census in 2017, there were 64,567 Haitians in Chile, with current numbers looking to be around 150,000. The rules about visitor visas have been changed and Chileans are no longer coming to Chili. These Haitians feel like second class citizens and welcome the opportunity to come to America. They are not concerned about the claims of systemic racism.

EV's

On the news today they announced that Ford was leading the way toward electric cars. While this sounds like music to the ears of the greens it places the cart before the horse. Electric cars are a great idea but the first step should be to use thorium to create electricity. It doesn't make sense to use power generated by fossil fuels to charge the car battery. Physicist will tell you that this is counter productive but if the green deal is about social change it doesn't matter. Science doesn't count.

Vaccinations

When I asked how the unvaccinated could harm the vaccinated, I was told that the unvaccinated is where the variants develop. Upon researching this, I find out that the variants can develop in both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Many people who are not vaccinated are coming across the border and being dispersed throughout the country. These people are put on buses supplied by the government and sent to different cities. Videos show that many of them are not wearing masks and certainly not social distancing. Most of these people are under age 65 and may be asymptomatic especially the younger ones. Will this cause the spread of the virus? Has politics so infested this subject that it no longer matters if the virus spreads just who spreads it.

Clancy

Here is a story line for a new Tom Clancy thriller. A country run by an ambitious dictator desires to take over the world. His scientist develop a deadly virus. Then they develop a vaccine and vaccinate all of their people before releasing the bug on the rest of the world. The bug is a super spreader and causes severe long term illness. The people do not die but stay deathly sick for years. The country denies any challenge that they did this on purpose although the world suspects them. As the world's economies collapse the evil autocrat gains power and sits back and waits for other countries to implode.

Afghan children

Many years ago I wrote about the idea that America should not intervene in the affairs of foreign countries unless there was a threat to the US. To illustrate that may not always be the case, I posed the example of foreign soldiers throwing babies into the air and catching them on their bayonets. While this seemed absurd at the time it now seems possible. When you see the things that Al Qaeda and other terror groups are doing to innocent people including children we may soon find out how the civilized world will respond. "UNICEF is shocked by the rapid escalation of grave violations against children in Afghanistan. In the last 72 hours, 20 children have been killed and 130 children have been injured in Kandahar province. "These atrocities are also evidence of the brutal nature and scale of violence in Afghanistan which preys on already vulnerable children. While children have always died in war they were considered collateral damage but these children are being singled out and killed to put fear into the people. Hundreds of children are currently held by the authorities for alleged involvement with the Taliban, or other armed groups, and are often subjected to torture, according to a statement by HRW.

Afghan news

When the US left Afghanistan it was predicted and hoped by some that the news would be blocked. It is difficult to find stories in the main press but if you look you can find many stories. Here is sampling of stories about news people left behind. Among the most tragic examples is the story of how the administration left behind more than 100 government-sponsored journalists, plus their families, after putting them through three weeks of hell. Are we going to pay attention to it anymore? US news outlets are charting a course for Afghan coverage after America leaves Journalists face danger on Kabul streets and a new question: How to cover Afghanistan now? Afghan VOA reporters stuck in Kabul fear they will be forgotten, says colleague WASHINGTON — Afghan journalists with the Voice of America and other U.S.-funded media outlets were shocked they were not evacuated out of Afghanistan by the U.S. government and fear they will be forgotten, one colleague who did make it out said Friday. Taliban have been detaining and assaulting journalists and imposing new restrictions on media work, Human Rights Watch said today o The media spotlight in Afghanistan is about to dim as journalists evacuate The New York Times' Peter Baker tweeted Thursday that the Biden team's "cold political calculation is that Americans won't care what happens in Afghanistan as long as Americans are safe."

Carbon free power

There is solid evidence that CO2 levels are increasing and at the highest levels over the past one million years and this leads to higher global temperatures. These test use ice core samples from Antarctica where they drill down several miles. Certain groups lose credibility by claiming changes that are not backed up by science, for example saying hurricanes are getting more prevalent and more severe. Here is a report from a reliable source. Vecchi Research Group in the Department of Geosciences and Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University The team found no clear increase in the number of storms in the Atlantic over that 168-year time frame. ... More surprisingly — even to Vecchi, he says — the data also seem to show no significant increase in hurricane intensity over that time. This type of reporting confuses people and it all started with Al Gore's book. He said he had to exaggerate to get peoples attention and that succeeded. The fact that climate change is being used to promote social change does not help. As long as the emphasis is on replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar the temperatures will continue to rise. The path to solving the problem of climate change involves continuing the replacement of coal power plants with natural gas, moving to natural gas for transportation, replacing all old power plants with thorium nuke plants and starting construction of thorium plants around the world. These plants provide a carbon free safe supply of electric power. China has already started.

Prejudgement

Today President Biden condemned the border patrol horsemen, took them off their jobs and said "I promise you: those people will pay... There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences." This is mindful when President Obama said the police acted stupidly in the Gates case before the investigation. All too often incidences are prematurely resolved and this flies in the face of innocent until proven guilty. Its the old adage, give em a fair trial and then hang em. The more famous recent case was the second impeachment of Trump that was concluded before the investigation began.

BLM

As Black Lives Matter goes the way of Occupy Wall Street some wonder why it got the attention it did. The answer seems to center around diverting attention away from Black homicides to racist cops. During the five year period of 2017 to 2021 one thousand Blacks were killed by police. How did the government react? They defunded the police, got rid of bonding which allowed arrested criminals to go back on the street and they emptied some prisons because of Covid. Black males represent 6% of the population and those between the ages of 15 and 40 are half that number. In spite of that low number, those 3% are responsible for 55% of homicides. To make matters worse 88% of those homicides are Black men killing Black men. In 2019, 13,927 people were murdered and 7,484 (54%) were Black. That year 258 Black men were killed by cops and 25 of these were unarmed. The news was all about the 25 not the 7,484. Since 1980 more than 260,000 Black men have been murdered in the US. The truly sad thing about this is that no one seems to care.

Haitians

In May of this year Biden granted a form of provisional residency to thousands of Haitian living in the US. Four months later 10,000 Haitians show up at the southern border. Some say there is a connection but there is no way to prove that.

Big Tech

The voting trend that started under Trump continued with the California recall election in that big business supported Newsom. The LA Times headline said, Big companies donate millions on Newsom’s behalf, raising concerns about corporate influence. The Republican Party has become the party of the working people and the democrats are now the party of big business.WIRED found that employees at Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Oracle have contributed nearly 20 times as much money to Biden as to Trump since the beginning of 2019. For every $1 that employees at the world's biggest technology companies donated to Donald Trump, they gave $60 to Hillary Clinton. Silicon Valley Donated Silicon Valley Donat

3.5 trillion

The $3.5 trillion spending has increase to $4.3 trillion as the 13 committees each added some of their own favorites. Then a common gimmick used by congress was used to hide the real spending which is $7 to $8 trillion. They do this by saying the spending will sunset in 6 years but most people agree that once you start a give away program it will not sunset but continue on. You can't give free childcare for 6 years and then stop. When Obama care was passed they collected premiums for four years before the benefits started in order to keep the first ten year cost under a billion.

Border news

The estimates say the 15,000 illegals are gathered at the border near Del Rio, TX and most are from Haiti. Many spent their life savings to get here and many will be sent right back. The administration is sending three plane loads a day back to Haiti. That is about 600 people but new ones are coming in faster than that. Many are being put on buses and sent to other parts of the country and it is called catch and bus. The buses rolling in a steady daily succession out of Del Rio — one charter a day, seven days a week, and before that weeks of filling Greyhound buses — represent a microcosm of a much broader aspect of the unfolding mass-migration crisis at the southern border that has attracted limited media coverage and occurs largely outside public view. Tens of thousands of immigrants caught illegally crossing the border and then released under the new leniency policy of President Joe Biden are now dispersing to four corners of the United States on buses, with some of the more moneyed ones taking passenger jets

Equal results

Part of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) is to strive for equity and that is easy to achieve. Equity means equal results. The average family income is $60,000 per year so make every family earn that. The average grade in school is C to give everyone a C. In sports stop keeping score so every game ends in a tie. The average house cost $200,000 so give everyone the same kind of house. Clothing should follow the example of Mao in China where everyone worn the same clothes even the same shoes. While these are ridiculous ideas some people want to pick and choose what they think is appropriate. You can be sure these same people do not want the NBA to be 60% white or the NFL to stop keeping score. Want they want is equity between the rich and the poor but not to the point where it impacts them. In other words everyone whose income is below the $60,000 wants theirs to increase and all those whose income is above the $60,000 average does not want their income lowered. It's the same with taxes. People are OK with higher taxes as long as its not their taxes.

Choose Biden

When Biden ran for president he was sheltered from the press and spent a lot of time out of the public eye using the Covid as the reason. He was not vetted well because the press was more against Trump than for Biden. This was the case for many of the Biden voters. Now that Trump is fading into the background more attention is being paid to Biden and what he is doing. This has caused some to wonder if he was the best choice, to wonder if he is up to the task. Will these people come forth and express their concerns or are they so wedded to their decision that they cannot change regardless of what Biden does or doesn't do. We will see over the next year.

Biden problems

When people are asked what Biden has accomplished they are hard pressed to come up with answers. Some things are, he has not ended the import taxes on China, he has not signed up for deal with Iran and he has gotten the vaccine to millions. The most common answer by the Biden supporter is that he sent out $1.9 trillion in checks to the people and will soon sign a $3.5 trillion dollar spending bill but detractors say that will fuel inflation. Once people begin to receive these benefits the other problems like Afghanistan, the border and crime will become less important. Climate change will go away as polls show it ranks near the bottom with only 3% saying it is a serious problem.

Investigations

The Durham investigation into Trump/Russia collusion has found a person no one ever heard of guilty of lying to the FBI. This is mindful of the Mueller report that found a couple of underlings guilty of lying. These are called process crimes because it is easy to trip someone up during lengthy interrogations. These inquires cost millions and the public got nothing for the money. These investigations allow senators to go on national television and pontificate while showing off for their constituents. Anytime a big shot is accused of malfeasance the cry is hold your judgment until all the facts are in. This leads to a committee or sometimes a special prosecutor and years later when the facts are in no one changes their original opinion. If the person was deemed guilty by some before the investigation they are deemed guilty after no matter what facts are presented. It is considered a success if an important person is investigated no matter what the result.

Border problems

As August registers as another month with more than 200,000 illegals crossing the border there is little to no news coverage. It is necessary to search under border to find out what is going on. For some time now Fox News has been flying drones over the border and showing large numbers of illegals gathering at various locations along the Texas border. Yesterday they showed 10,000 illegals from Haiti near the border. After seeing that the FAA said they could no longer fly the drone in the area. Some feel this is the government preventing a news agency from reporting the news. Nothing on the main channels about this. It is not only the illegals presenting a problem but the amount of fentenyl has increase dramatically and last year 100,000 people died from drugs. Federal agents in this section of the southern border say they’ve seen a staggering 4,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures over the last three years. Those busts are not at ports of entry, where most smuggled drugs are typically found. The Border Patrol says the rising amount of fentanyl is being found in the desert – transported by increasingly brazen smugglers who are exploiting stretched federal resources. Add to that the problem of sex trafficking. Criminal organizations reportedly made up to $14 million a day in February by trafficking women, children, and families across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Millie

There is concern about China influencing US elections and policy. Recently General Millie felt he had to call China because of some info about a possible US attack. The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. It does not say where this info came from but China could leak a story like that to influence US policy. Millie was influenced to the point where he along with some push from Pelosi felt Trump was going to attack China. He then assured China that he would give them a heads up if Trump tried such a thing. Millie told his underlings that no such attack should occur without his OK. Here is the procedure for the president to launch the nukes. The president has the sole authority to call for a nuclear strike. Once the call is made, a series of critical steps follow. The president first meets with top military advisers. The meeting would take place in the Situation Room. If the president is traveling, a call is made on a secure line. If the president still wants to go through with the strike, the order is verified. To authenticate the order, a challenge code is read to the president. It's usually two phonetic letters like "Delta-Echo." The president then receives the "biscuit", a laminated card that's always near the president. The biscuit has the matching response to the challenge code. The Pentagon then broadcasts an encoded message to missile crews. The message is only about the length of a standard tweet.

Misleading

On public radio today they announced that in Idaho the hospitals are filling up to the point where they have to postpone elective surgery and they then said that Idaho as only achieved a 40% vaccination rate and that ended the story. What they failed to mentioned is that next door in Oregon the hospitals are in the same dire situation and Oregon has 60% vaccinated. This kind of reporting does not help people gain trust in the media. You don't have to lie to mislead.

ID

When the subject of voter ID comes up there are a number of people and groups who point out that many people cannot get an ID for any number of reasons. NY City now requires both proof of vaccination and an ID to prove who you are in order to enter restaurants, gyms, entertainment venues, nightclubs, pools, all city museums and other cultural institutions. coffee shops, bars, cafes, fast food joints, catering halls and hotel banquet rooms. Will this discriminate against those who are unable to get an ID. Many feel it will not be a problem saying the idea of voter ID was just political and not practical.

Climate

President Biden said today that climate change is not a political thing. Aaaagh! This is so politicized that leading scientist will not say that based on current technology wind and solar cannot replace fossil fuels. Experts continue to say that the problem will be solved by creating millions of high paying union jobs producing wind mills and solar panels. While there is a place for these things near power plants and fixed structures they must work in tandem with fossil fuels.

Green

In social studies today in high school the subject was climate change and here is quote from the text book. Solar does not damage the environment or cause pollution as does the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Extraction of rare earth metals causes severe damage to the land and water. Many people do not understand the full impact of solar because the issue has not been fully explored by the press. They need to be honest and say that wind and solar cannot replace fossil fuels. They need to say that wind and solar can be an important part of going green but let people know that the answer is using all forms of energy and moving toward thorium power plants. This will not be done as long as the hidden reason behind climate change is to change the social structure. In 2006, a Green New Deal was created by the Green New Deal Task Force as a plan for one hundred percent clean, renewable energy by 2030 utilizing a carbon tax, a jobs guarantee, free college, single-payer healthcare, and a focus on using public programs.

Eating

There is an ad on TV selling your daily requirement of vegetables and fruits in six capsules. Perhaps this is the way of the future. Next they can combine beef, pork, chicken and fish in a dehydrated form and offer the daily requirement of meat in six capsules. Follow that up with dehydrated bread and we can have our daily supply of food in 18 capsules. This way we won't have to waste time preparing and eating meals. We can all gather around the dinner table once a day and eat our capsules while we tell each other about our day. This sounds and is ridiculous but if you listen to the ad they say that these capsules are just as good as eating the real vegetables giving the impression that eating is a chore to be avoided. For many seniors retired in Florida this will be a blow since for most going out to eat is the highlight of the day.

Safety first

50 years ago when you purchased life insurance you had to answer health related questions to qualify and most of the questions were about your health. Today most of the questions are about life style, things like smoking, drinking and weight. 480,000 die each year from cigarettes, 95,000 from alcohol and 300,000 from obesity. These things affect everyone with drunk drivers and speeding drivers to the high cost of health care which is shared by all. Today the government is considering mandating vaccination to save lives. Will other areas be next? Will people lose their jobs if they drink too much or eat too much. What about outlawing cigarettes. How far should the government go to save lives. Is a death by Covid more serious than one by smoking. Covid hopefully will be gone soon but that doesn't seem to be the case for other areas. Are these things being thought through carefully? How much control should the government have over the safety of the people. Would lower speed limits help or putting on a helmet when you buckle up. Should cost/benefit ratios determine the law? Should Medicare cover a liver transplant for a 90 year old man with a weak heart?

Judges

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 87 and still on the court and the democrats were pleading with her to stay on until Trump was out of office. Now the same people are pleading with Justice Breyer to retire before the republicans gain control of the senate. He is 83. This all flies in the face of the claim that courts are neutral. Courts are made up of human beings and cannot be unbiased. By their nature the justices are people who have strong beliefs and these show through in their decisions. Having a senate of one party and a president of the other party is the best way to get a justice who is center biased.

Masks and masks

In school today I asked why the masks and was told it was to protect the students. As of August 1, 2021 a total of 360 children have died from Covid. During any 18 month period about 300 children die from the flu. Schools want students to wear a mask but they are not told the proper way to wear a mask, how to put it on and take it off and how often to change and/or wash the mask. All of the plastic barriers have come down and social distancing is no longer required. Teachers are no longer spraying all the desk between classes. The teachers and the staff have all been vaccinated. It would be helpful if they would do a cost/benefit ratio on the pros and cons of masks in school. Students are wearing masks but not tight fitting and they remove them at lunch without washing hands. As far as the delta variant goes here is what the experts say. “Although we are seeing more cases in children and more overall cases, these studies demonstrated that there was not increased disease severity in children,” Dr. Walensky said. “Instead, more children have COVID-19 because there is more disease in the community.” Meanwhile million of unmasked people are congregating at major sporting events. These are older than students and more likely to suffer more severe consequences.

Bagram

Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan is a 35 acre facility with buildings and a 30 bed hospital. It is difficult to find how much it cost to build but the new runway cost $96 million dollars. It is strategically located 400 miles west of China and 500 miles east of Iran. Putin has told Biden he could not put any bases in the countries surrounding Afghanistan so the US has no eyes and ears in the entire area. The latest word is that China is negotiating with the Afghans to take over the base. This as women are relegated to second class citizen status and US allies are being sought out and killed.

Headlines

Here is a headline from Business Insider Magazine. Child deaths from COVID double in Florida as cases among children climb across the country. Upon further reading they point out that from the start of the pandemic until July 13, 2021 seven children under the age of 16 died during that time and there have been 11 deaths since July 30. It goes on, Florida chapter said most of these deaths were aligned with underlying health conditions. The headline leads to one conclusion but the additional information leads to another. It seems like it was designed to cause panic. This kind of stuff doesn't help.

Trump/Biden

It trying to evaluate the differences between Trump and Biden one of the areas that sticks out is the juxtaposition between what is said and what is done. Those who did not like Trump agreed that what he said was unacceptable and they would often say that words matter. Those who liked Trump concentrated on what was done as opposed to what was said. They would say actions speak louder than words. When it comes to Biden the reverse is true. People who like Biden liked what he says. He is a kindly old guy who speaks with a soft voice and is empathetic. While he has trouble articulating that is overlooked because what he says is comforting. Those who don't like Biden point out what he does. People are upset with the border situation, the rise in crime and the way we left Afghanistan. Polls indicate that voters see his actions as more important that his words.

Waterboarding

Chris Wallace new book about Bin Laden is out and he confirms that water boarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed led to the discovery of a courier which they then followed and he led them to Bin Laden. When this first happened many in government denied using water boarding and said it didn't work. They were concerned of how this made America look. Under the rendition and secret detention program Khalid was sent to the CIA black site at Start Kiejkuty in Poland. He said it was there the most intense interrogation took place. He mentioned the name of the courier but nothing else. Later at another location when he did not know he was being taped he told his fellow prisoners not to mention the courier. This led the CIA to further investigate and that led to the hold up place in Pakistan where he was killed. The Obama administration said they no longer used these intense interrogation methods but they failed to mention that they did not shut down the black sites where outside of the country these things were still going on.

Safe haven

Prior to 9/11 Al Qaeda attacked US on a number of occasions. In 1992 they attacked US troops in Yemen. In 1993 they bombed the World Trade Center. In 1995 a bomb exploded at a US base in Saudi Arabia. In1992 they attacked US troops in the Yemen hotel bombings. In 1993 a bomb went off at the Gold Mohur hotel, where U.S. troops had been staying. In 1995 a car bomb killed 5 US troops in Saudi Arabia. In 1998 they bombed the US embassy in Kenya. In 2000 the bombed the USS Cole killing 17 sailors. During these years they had a safe haven in Afghanistan and they now have that again so we can expect the attacks on Americans and US bases to accelerate. What goes around come around.

Biden strategy

What will Biden's strategy be to overcome the bad year he is having. Answer. New stimulus checks. I gave you $1.9 trillion and will soon give you $3.5 trillion more. You know those stimulus checks for $600 and $1,200 and $1,400 you got in the past two years. Well there will be a lot more coming your way. Once these are approved they will be ongoing. We can't give social programs like child care for one year so they will be ongoing. This will add another $3.5 trillion to the budget every year from now on. As Pelosi says, here is what we are offering and you take out what you don't want. This is a sound strategy. The downside is that the economy is struggling and a massive tax increase will not help. Could lead to a downturn and some inflation. Something big must be done to move Afghanistan and the southern border out of the news and the national press will be a willing partner.

Newsom/Elder

As the campaign to recall Governor Gavin Newsom comes to a close there are some similarities to the Biden/Trump campaign. Larry Elder his main opponent has been pounding the issues, things like homelessness and handling of the Covid and Newsom is responding with personal attacks. As things get close the democrats have pulled out their ace in the hole, racism but they have had to adjust the message since Elder is Black. The LA Times a typical leftist newspaper referred to Elder as the Black face of white supremacy. Newsom will keep his job because of the press and the millions of dollars donated by Silicon Valley. It will also be a test run for the effectiveness of sending ballots to every voter and allowing ballot harvesting. Republicans are geared up to harvest ballots from their voters so if this is effective the number of votes should be a record high. It is helpful to have volunteers pick up ballots since many cannot or won't go to the polls but will these volunteers also help voters to fill out the ballot.

Sheikh

The government is warming up to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the 9/11 attack on America. They have spent $161 million dollars keeping him locked up for the past 17 years and the trial is expected to cost millions more. He wins again.

Vaccine ID

In NY City you must show your vaccination card along with an ID card to prove you are who you say. For people who are not able to show ID they just eat at home. This would be all those voters who could not get ID plus most of the Blacks who are not vaccinated. Only 28% of Blacks between ages 18 and 44 are vaccinated. Would this be considered racist? Can this be a new Jim Crow way to keep Blacks out of your restaurant?

New voters

For some years now certain people have suggested that a few in government want illegal immigrants hoping to turn them into voters. There is no proof of this but certain facts promote this idea. The number of crossings is at an all time high and the border agents are overwhelmed with duties other than guarding the border and this allows even more illegals to enter. Many of these are criminals who are part of the drug cartels that are bringing in things like fentenyl which causes 70% of drug deaths. As of June 30, 2021, with three months remaining in the US government's fiscal year, 95,079 children left their countries without parent or guardian and the government has lost track of one-third of these. Recall that the NY Times attacked Trump when 1,500 children were lost by the government. After months of denial the government has finally admitted to a crisis at the border but nothing has been done. Perhaps there is some truth to the conspiracy theory of wanting more voters.

Unions

Private unions and public unions both have 7 million members but that represents 7% of private workers and 34% of public workers. Teachers are 80% union members. Do teachers prefer unions? If you search this question on the Internet you will find that 90% of the articles say that teachers prefer unions but this question is best answered by looking at what happened in Wisconsin after the law changed and allowed teachers to choose. Before the law changed the union had 98,000 members and after the law changed this number dropped to 32,000.

America

Some 500 years ago Goethe wrote about his character Faust who made a deal with the devil and that story has been told many times in many different situations and it is being played out in a very real way today. Biden has made a deal with the Taliban. They are currently holding a number of planes with people who want to leave Afghanistan and demanding that the US agree to recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. The next step will be to force the US to finance the new government and many other demands will follow. These people are being held at the Mazar-e-Sharif airport in an isolated area of the country. Biden could attempt an attack like the Jews did in their successful raid on Entebbe airport and if successful be a hero but then the Taliban would respond by threatening other hostages. Biden is like poor Faust, in for dime in for a dollar.

America

Joe from Morning Joe has been on vacation for two weeks and is back. Today he gave a five minute talk praising how great America is. We air lifted 100,000 people to freedom and our forces showed great courage in doing this. This is true. America is a great country. Of course he felt differently just a few months ago but he was wrong then as the US has always been the country that showed the world its heart and welcoming these Afghans is just one more example. I hope the next time some group starts to bad mouth the country Joe will stand up and defend the US along with the flag and the anthem and the wonderful people who live here.

Low wages

On CNN this morning they were interviewing people who have been out of a work but not taking jobs. The consensus opinion was that the pay is not high enough. They pointed out that it is not the unemployment benefits that keep them from working because some states that stopped these benefits still suffered from the same problem, that is, not having enough workers. In the same report they stated that there are 10 million unfilled job openings. This begs the question, if you are not working because the pay is too low what are you currently living on?

Football masks

I have been to two schools so far this year and in one they wear mask and the other they don't. I thought this a bit strange but later in the week I watched Super Bowl LV and found it even more strange. First off I don't usually watch games on TV so watching the Super Bowl this late is not as odd as you might think. The strange part was the players faced each other nose to nose on the line of scrimmage, spitting, snorting, coughing, sneezing and yelling after which they go sit on the bench and put on their masks. I did note that as the game wore on a few did away with the masks. Some kept their helmets on instead of putting on the mask. Then I saw on the news the college football games this weekend and thousands of fans all screaming at the top of their lungs and no masks. This sort of exemplified the whole mask situation in general. Some say yes and some say no when it comes to mask. Most of those who wear mask don't follow the proper protocol so one wonders about the efficacy.

Afghan news

The Media focus has moved away from Afghanistan and onto the latest, things like the hurricane and the Texas abortion law. This will hold for a while but soon reports will be coming out of Afghanistan about terrorist taking revenge on those who helped the Americans and mistreatment of women but all reports will be down played as not being verified. When actual videos from cell phones appear they will be questioned and referred to as just politics. The American people will likely be split along the pro Biden anti Biden groupings. Fox will be the one lonely TV broadcast showing the pics. The recent news from Rueter's about Biden's phone call with the President of Afghanistan is a good example of what to expect. Ever since Reuters broke its news on Tuesday, all of the major networks, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC, have avoided mentioning the controversial phone call, according to Grabien transcripts. 

Electric cars

When Obama was running for president he said your electric rates will, "necessarily sky rocket". While this will not be of concern to wealthy people it posses problems for lower income groups. Biden has stopped oil leases on public land which means the US will import oil to make up the difference. This results in higher gasoline prices which once again hurts lower income workers. Higher gas prices along with diesel cause transportation cost to rise which means higher cost for things that people buy from Walmart. This also hurts lower income people. This is all about climate change but it doesn't reduce oil consumption it merely exchanges US oil for Russian oil. What is the logic behind these changes. Some say the purpose is to raise prices so people will move away from gasoline powered cars to electric vehicles. How will they charge the batteries is a question that needs to be asked. 2.4% of power comes from solar. Last year sales of electric cars had 7% market share. The only sensible way to own an electric car is to have solar panels on your home to pay for your heating and cooling and have enough additional panels to power up your electric car every night. This car to be used just to commute to work and have another gasoline powered car for other uses.

Over horizon

President Biden says the US has over the horizon capabilities after leaving Afghanistan. This means sending in planes and drones to combat terror groups. These planes would come mostly from air craft carriers in the Arabian Sea. The problem is that there are no longer any spotters on the ground in Afghanistan and this makes finding targets almost impossible. So while his statement is true it offers no practical way to implement.

Eugenics

Eugenics is a frightening word that most thought was lost in the past but recent events have caused concern. With the rise of prenatal screening tests across Europe and the United States, the number of babies born with Down syndrome has significantly decreased, but few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland. Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women -- close to 100 percent -- who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy. Most everyone knows a family that has a Downs syndrome baby and these families attest to the love that this child has brought them. Spina bifida is often detected during the mid-pregnancy anomaly scan, which is offered to all pregnant women between 18 and 21 weeks of pregnancy. With the right treatment and support, many children with spina bifida survive well into adulthood. It can be a challenging condition to live with, but many adults with spina bifida are able to lead independent and fulfilling lives. 83% of babies diagnosed with spina bifida are aborted. What does the future hold for babies with missing fingers or toes? What about gender and IQ? Is Eugenics coming back!

Rights

As Americans watch the efforts to bring Afgani's over here to freedom the border guards are trying to keep people from crossing into the country. This will open up the US to a charge of racism since Afghani's are white and those at the southern border are brown. The Woke people may look the other way since it is Biden who is at the helm. As we saw when Bill Clinton ended NOW (National Organization for Women) and Justice Kavanaugh ended the MeToo movement this is about politics under the guise of rights.

Oil

The bi partisan infrastructure bill includes $550 billion over 5 years or $110 billion per year. Americans use 126 billion gallons of gasoline each year and the current federal tax is 18 cents per gallon and this has not been increased since 1993. Gas has increased by one dollar per gallon in the past 6 months and that is a tax of $126 billion dollars that could have been used to pay for the infrastructure bill. Low income groups are upset with the recent rise in the price of gasoline but people would be irate if that one dollar was from tax increases. If the US would increase the supply of oil the price of gas would come down and that savings could be used for highways. Speaking of oil, US crude production will fall by 210,000 barrels per day while the thirst for Russian oil hits a record high. This will be just fine with Putin.

Abortion

The tyranny of extremes is a phrase used today to describe the this or that way of looking at issues. Once a group chooses sides they often find themselves in the position of being on the extreme. The pressure mounts to move to the end on every issue in your group. Many times people end up pushing an idea they deep down don't believe. The answer to most problems is almost always somewhere in the middle. There are times when a particular issue is of such great importance that those who follow it cannot change their position. For years these positions have been in the area of religion but more recently they have moved into politics. This opens the door to the oft used strategy of using religion to push a political ideology. As far as compromise goes take the case of abortion. One side says that the morning after pill is killing a baby because life begins at conception. The other side says it's okay to have an abortion the day before the baby is born because it's a woman right. It is a waste of time to talk to either of these groups so look to the middle. A woman can choose an abortion during the first trimester assuming it is not for some trivial issue like eye color. No abortions during the third trimester unless the physical life of the mother is at risk. In the second trimester each case is evaluated on its merit. A team composed of mom and hopefully dad along with the doctor, social worker, minister and financial adviser get together and come up with a plan. Will those in the middle find a middle ground?

Test gap

The country has struggled for years with the education gap between white and Asian students in one group and non-white students in another group. NY City has found a way to solve the problem. Equity is coming to schools. Here is the latest from NY City schools. “Recognizing student excellence via honor rolls and class rank can be detrimental to learners who find it more difficult  to reach academic success, often for reasons beyond their control,” the document states. The DOE wants schools to widen recognition to include “contributions to the school or wider community, and demonstrations of social justice and integrity.” Newly released grading guidelines for this school year replace failing grades with needs improvement and course in progress. The next move should be to get rid of national testing and then everyone will feel good. This is known by some detractors of the plan as a race to the bottom. Wonder what would happen if they extended this to sports.