Divided country

A large number of people still feel that the last election was stolen from Trump and they are ridiculed by another large group. They are called crazy insurrectionist who are trying to destroy our democracy. There is another large group that still feel that there was a Trump/Russia collusion and they succeeded in impeaching Trump and are calling for more investigation and this groups is considered crazy by many as refusing to face the facts. Both of these groups are locked into their positions and that is representative of what is happening to the country. They all declare they are the real Americans as they join forces to divide the country. Facts and investigations are treated the same as trials. If they don't prove your side they were wrong regardless of what the jury decides.

Going nuclear

There is a college in a Illinois town where I used to live and they have signs on the street light poles saying, get ready the world is changing. This is happening in an important area behind the scenes and very few people are aware of what is going on. Many environmentalist who a few years ago were anti nuclear people are rethinking their positions. As we entered the 21st century the push for clean air was led by the proponents of wind and solar. The plan got a big push when it was combined with social change but as Bob Dylan said, things are a changin. Leading scientist now realize that going to wind and solar is trading clean air for dirty water. The amount of waste from both the construction of wind and solar and the amount of dangerous waste products have caused them to see the value of nuclear. Many have come to the conclusion that you cannot solve the climate change problem with wind and solar. The misinformation about the safety of nuclear has been promoted by those who compete with nuclear and they joined forces with those who want to use wind and solar to promote social change and they have convinced people that nuclear is not a viable alternative. Scientist who rely on factual evidence are realizing that nuclear is the only way to deal with climate change but they are faced with the politicians who are committed to wind and solar. As more information is forthcoming the balance will shift to nuclear where both clean air and clean water can be achieved.

NPR reports

This past week there was a 15 minute interview on Public Radio with a woman who traveled with a caravan coming up through Mexico. She related a dozen stories of people who risked their lives to make the journey emphasizing the hardships encountered along the way. No mention was made of any women or children being molested. No mention of paying coyotes. No mention of criminals inside the group, no mention of children traveling alone and no mention of drugs be delivered. Here is part of a report from the NY Times. On America’s southern border, migrant women and girls are the victims of sexual assaults that most often go unreported, uninvestigated and unprosecuted. This is from the El Paso News. 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. Here is from CNN. Tens of thousands of migrants arrive at the US border each week, with record-setting numbers of unaccompanied minors among them.

China and thorium

China has joined the age of thorium and plans to use this to become carbon free. The first experimental plant is underway and expected to go online this fall. Plans to build many more on an assembly like process are next. Thorium reactors are modular in construction and can be combined to increase power as needed. They are safe and will automatically shut down if left unattended or if power is interrupted. They do not use water as a coolant and operate at normal atmospheric temperatures which means no danger of steam explosions. They can use up existing stockpiles of waste. They not only produce electric power but many valuable medical chemicals needed to treat cancer. They can be designed to use excess heat to desalt sea water. China plans to sell these to 30 different countries. The thorium can be mined without harming the environment and is less costly and more available than uranium. One good source of thorium is the coal ash that has accumulated at coal fired power plants.

Native Americans

The classroom teacher is speaking in social studies explaining the history of the colonization of the New World. The settlers came bringing with them guns which allowed them to over power the local natives. They treated them as savages because they were not religious and pushed them off of their land. They added insult to injury by spreading diseases like small pox which killed many of the natives. They made treaties with the natives which they later broke and then moved them further west. The celebration of Thanksgiving is just one more way to insult these natives. The question arises how does this make the students feel. Is it designed to promote guilt. Do these students now feel responsible for the mistreatment that occurred hundreds of years ago. What should the students response be to this lecture. Did the teacher speak this way to show his concern for natives proving that he is a sensitive caring man who fights against injustice. If only there were more people like me the world would be a better place. Just what is going on here. What is the end game?

Free childcare

A single mom with two children working at Walmart for $15 per hour earns $30,000 per year and receives $6,000 in earned income credits plus $6,000 in child tax credits. Walmart provides benefits like healthcare, vacation and pension. The proposed build back better bill includes free childcare for 3 and 4 years olds meaning the mom could go to work when the youngest is 3. That saves $200 per week per child. When the children are five they can go to full time school where they are eligible for free breakfast and lunch. Mom pays no income tax and has a take home pay of $40,000 per year with low cost childcare and food assistance. In addition mom would qualify for benefits from TANF, SNAP and WIC. The only moms who can work are those who have a relative like grandma to take care of the kids. With the addition of childcare many moms without family support for childcare can work outside the home. Another option is to get the dead beat dads to pay the $20,000 for childcare but in today's world in many families the government is the dad.

Tax

There are a number of tax credits available and some do not understand the difference between refundable and nonrefundable credits. Nonrefundable means you can only deduct up to the amount of tax you owe. Refundable means you get the money even if you owe no taxes. The change made this year allows all of the credit to be deductible regardless of the tax you owe. Under the new rules this year if you are married and file joint and you have 5 children you can earn $150,000 and pay no income tax. This means that about 70% of working people will pay zero tax.

African ban

The US will limit travel from Africa because of Covid. 107,000 visitors came to the US last year from Africa. Since these countries are all in the southern part of Africa and in these countries the population is 95% Black, will this ban be considered racist as was the case when Trump banned travel from some Muslim countries but included the non-Muslim countries of North Korea and Venezuela and not the worlds largest Muslim country Indonesia.

Amazon

Jeff Bezos started Amazon 27 years ago and his business philosophy was simple. He would reinvest all profits to grow the business and grow it did. The money he might have used to spend to enjoy the good life went instead back into the business. Not only did the business grow but he paid very little in taxes. There were paper losses that he pushed forward to offset taxes. The company went 13 years without a net profit and finally in 2004 they showed a net profit of $73 million dollars. This reinvestment help other businesses to grow. This year is no different as Amazon plans to spend over $120 Billion on supplies and services purchased from other United States businesses There are over 200,000 different businesses that these supplies will come from in a variety of industries. Some say that Amazon should give money to charity but others say it is better if they expand and create new jobs. Amazon started with 21 employees in 1994 and today has 1.2 million employees. This is free market capitalism at work. The best welfare program is a good job. Amazon will hire 125,000 people this year and they have received over one million applications. In the past two years Bezos has sold $16 billion in stock to finance this space program, Blue Horizons. This creates thousands of high paid high tech jobs. Yet knowing his past history politicians plan ways to take his money so they can spend it in ways they think are better and this means ways to get themselves reelected.

Omar

MN congress woman Illmae Omar was accused of marrying her brother, Ahmed Elmi to help him get a US green card. She denied this. The FBI investigated and found that Omar married Ahmed Hirsi in 2018. She and Hirsi split in 2008, but reunited in 2012, even though Omar was legally married to Elmi until 2017. Two FBI agents reportedly held a meeting last October after a concerned source handed over documents in relation to her 2009 marriage to Elmi. Although agents were said to pass on the information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Education, government agencies have not confirmed the existence of an investigation or the potential to open one in the future. Nothing further was done so the allegation is left hanging.

China Hunter

The TV news media relies on The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal for their news. Last week the Times published what is being called a bomb shell report on Hunter Biden's deal to transfer a cobalt mine in Africa from US control to Chinese control. Nothing of this was reported in the three major networks of NBC, CBS and ABC or in the cable news MSNBC and CNN. Cobalt is needed for EV's and other high tech stuff. China has control of rare earth metals and now control of cobalt. If the US starts to bring manufacturing back to the states they should be preparing to develop their own supplies of rare earths and cobalt as China may well use these chemicals to keep US production in China. Many are asking how the US should respond to China's recent aggressive actions and a good way is to bring our business back home.

Fetus

A pregnant woman and the child she was carrying were killed Saturday night in a shooting in Philadelphia’s Crescentville section, police said. This headline is somewhat confusing since according to the Supreme Court it was a fetus that was killed not a child. In the United States most crimes of violence are covered by state law. Pennsylvania is one of 29 states that consider this murder.

Build back better

The path forward for the country is simple and easy to implement and mostly involves getting back to the pre pandemic days. Properly train and pay law enforcement to protect and serve. Reinstate remain in Mexico, have the Mexican government enforce their southern border and build the wall with all of its high tech protections. Use tax incentives to bring manufacturing back home and this will create new high paying jobs and solve the supply chain problem. Emphasize private job creation not government jobs. Direct schools to concentrate on the 3 R's and leave the rest up to families while allowing the money to follow the student to private schools and Charter schools. Move toward thorium nuclear power to create electricity, hydrogen for transportation and energy to desalt sea water.

Rittenhouse

Kyle Rittenhouse shares some commonality with Nicholas Sandman. Recall he was the student from Covington, KY who was defamed by various press groups and he sued several of these organizations and ended up rich. The terms of his suit against the Washington Post and CNN were not disclosed but he sued for $250 million. Both of these young men were under the age of 18 and they were not famous which means they do not have to prove malice. The press admitted no wrong doing and settled out of court. Defamation of character is a false statement made or published about someone else that harms that person. The term includes both slander, describing a false spoken statement, and libel, a false published statement.

Build back passes

The build back better bill passed today and contains benefits for wealthy people. Starting with the repeal of the Trump SALT, it also has $320 billion in tax credits for installing solar panels and this could save a homeowner $20,000 in taxes but how many low income people pay taxes. The same goes for the $12,500 tax credit for EV's. The least costly Tesla is $45,000 and not many low income people can afford that. The bill could do without these features and keep things like $400 billion for universal pre-K, $200 billion child tax credits, $200 billion for 4 weeks paid leave and $150 for reduced deductibles for healthcare as these help low income people. The bill now goes to the senate and there they may remove some of these help the rich parts.

OJ

The US legal system, which is arguably the best can be baffling at times. In the Rittenhouse trial a newsman was found following the bus that carried the jurors and he was banned from the trial as there was concern that he might be intimidating the jury members. On the other hand, everyday outside the courthouse there are crowds of people protesting loud enough to be heard inside the courtroom. They are threatening to riot if the defendant is found not guilty. 500 national guard members are on hand to quell the riots. The jurors are not sequestered so they are aware of what is happening. They know that if they find not guilty their city may be set afire as was the case before the trial. Is this not intimidating? Will this effect their decision? Are we to the point where mob justice can rule the day? This has not always been the case. In the famous OJ Simpson trial of 25 years ago, a black man was accused of killing two white people, one of whom was his wife. The trial went on for 8 months and there were peaceful protest led by feminist but no violence. Thousands of women joined NOW. A recent poll shows that more than 50% of Blacks think OJ was guilty. He had a group of high priced lawyers called by the press the dream team and they used the race card to get him acquitted. The jury consisted of 8 blacks, 2 Hispanics, 1 half-Caucasian, half Native American, and 1 Caucasian female. The jury deliberated for four hours.

Motive

It can be dangerous to impugn motives. When you hear someone say, I know what he's thinking or feeling or meaning you should be alert to possible bias. Today the presidents spokeswoman said that the republicans are hoping for high inflation. Another newsman said the democrats were hoping for something like January 6. Perhaps this is what psychologist call projection or what a layperson would call wishful thinking.

New benefits

Back in 2010 when Obamacare became law the democrats were warned that this would cost them seats in the house and in fact it did. The dems knew this but Obama decided it would be worth it because they would one day regain the house but once enacted a government benefit is there for good. The same strategy is going on this year. All indications are that the dems will lose the house but Biden feels the loss will be worth it if he can pass the build back America plan. The plan includes free preschool and free child care for kids under age 6. The child tax credit to $3,600. More money for Obamacare to lower monthly cost to users. Once passed these will not be canceled and in a few years the house will come back to the democrats. It is a good strategy and it worked before. These are all good ideas that will help low income people and will cost $900 billion over ten years and a 2% increase in taxes on the rich can pay for this. A family of four can earn up to $88,000 and pay no income tax and have free child care so both parents can work. The USDA recently extended the free breakfast and lunch program through the next school year and by that time it will be hard to stop.

Yes more in thorium

Nuclear power plants using uranium have been operating for 60 years and are safer than other forms of energy production. The main hazards with these plants are high pressure and the use of water for cooling. In addition they produce waste which last for many thousands of years. Enter thorium liquid salt plants. They do not operate at high pressure or use water for cooling and produce waste that last for hundreds instead of thousands of years. In addition they can use up waste from uranium plants. They are smaller in size and less expensive to build and operate. They are safer than any other form of energy production since they have a walk away design. The people running the plant would just walk away the whole process would shut itself down.

Natural gas in Europe

In the past five years the US exports of natural gas have increased 2,400 percent. Exports to Asia have increased in recent years leaving Europe at the mercy of Russia. The US has seven liquid natural gas export terminals with 4 approved and under construction. There are 15 more terminals approved but not yet under construction. The US could supply Europe so they would not be dependent on Russia. Europeans are currently paying four times more to heat their homes than are people in the US and their homes are much smaller in size. The US has a large supply from fracking where as Europe is not fracking. Europe's problem was further exacerbated by an unusual lack of wind this past year. In Germany Chancellor Merkel started shutting down nuclear plants in 2011 with the goal to have all 26 shut down by 2022. They currently have six plants operating.

Wealth tax

Recently it was suggested that the very rich pay higher taxes in some form of wealth tax. Since most of these wealthy people have most of their assets in company stock it means the sale of stock. This past week Elon Musk sold $6.9 billion in stock to pay taxes. This resulted in a 20% drop in the stock price. While this does not hurt Musk since he still owns billions of shares it has an effect on the other stock holders who may not be so wealthy including many pension funds. This is what happens when large blocs of stock are sold. When the rich pay their taxes the ordinary investor loses.

Rittenhouse

While Fox news cable has more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined they only have half the viewers that the major networks, NBC, ABC and CBS. This means that most people still get their news from the main stream press but cable viewers watch the news more hours per week. With the exception of Fox the news about the trial of Rittenhouse has been slanted toward the prosecution. Some cynics feel the networks would get a boost in ratings if he is acquitted and this results in riots.

Inflation

The inflation that many have been predicting for years has finally arrived. The pent up buying that was loosed after the pandemic eased was accelerated by the stimulus spending. In the first stimulus a family of four received $1,200 per adult plus $500 per child for a total of $3,400. The second stimulus was $600 per adult and $600 per child for a total of $2,400. The third as $1,400 per adult for a total of $2,800. This put an extra $8,600 into the pockets of these families and they are spending it. Supplies are running low causing prices to rise. The jam in the supply chain is further aggravating the situation. The government has just approved a $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill with another $4.9 trillion for the build back better bill. The bill is said to cost only $2.4 trillion but this is with sunset clauses that limit the time of the bill to less than ten years. Most feel these benefit programs will not be sunsetted.

Infrastructure bill

Part of the new infrastructure bill includes electric school buses. Here in MN the electric power comes, 29% renewable's, 26% nuclear, 25% coal and 20% natural gas. This means that every other time you charge up the bus it will be from power produced by fossil fuels. Buses in LA county and garbage trucks around the country are running on natural gas and MN could easily do that and it would be done right away. If they started building thorium nuke plants these buses could run carbon free with no air pollution without contaminating the ground water in China. It will take years before the changes in this bill are implemented or if it is like the last infrastructure bill may never be implemented.

Belarus

Belarus President Alex Lukashenko is working closely with Putin to make sure NATO does not expand into the Ukraine. Thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East are currently living in Belarus and Lukashenko is sending them across the border into Poland and Poland is not happy about this. When Poland complained Lukashendo threatened to cut off the natural gas supply to Europe. This is what many said would happen and that is the reason why the new Nord Stream pipeline from Russia should not have been sanctioned by the US.

Climate

The recent meeting in Glasgow regarding climate change, meetings which first began in Kyoto in 1997 and followed up with the Paris accords in 2015 have come to a close and proved once again that the whole thing is a sham. While climate change is a serious problem caused by too much CO2 those in charge use it to redistribute income both here in the United States and on the world stage. The obvious solution to the problem is nuclear energy but that is rarely discussed. Take France for example. France gets about 70% of its electricity from nukes and is the worlds largest exporter of power due to its low cost and generates over $3 billion a year from exports. The new thorium nuke plants are safer, less costly and can recycle nuke waste. The problem with nuclear is that it cannot be used to promote social change which is the real goal of the all the meetings. The issue is political so half the people are all for social change and thus the discussion centers around wind and solar when common sense says that all sources of energy production should be considered.

Coal

In 2010 there were 530 coal fired power plants in the United States and today there are 240. Coal is being replaced by natural gas. Mainland China has 1,082 such plants with plans to build 43 new plants this year plus another 20 plants that China is building outside of China. China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units. World leaders want the US to join with them in moving away from coal but they also want US dollars to help underdeveloped countries. They are not asking Asian countries for money. Meanwhile the environmental experts are not discussing thorium nuke power which is carbon free because it cannot be used to promote social change. The US has been using nuke power for over 60 year and currently has 100 reactors on line. There has been one minor accident at Three Mile Island where no one was injured or killed. These plants produce no air born contaminants and thus cause no health problems with the air we breathe. The US will not emphasize this as long as they promote the idea that wind and solar can replace fossil fuels.

Guinea pigs

Sometimes ignorance causes undo harm but other times harm is done on purpose. The testing of nuclear weapons has been both. When the first bomb was tested in New Mexico in 1945 many military people were too near the explosion and were exposed to dangerous radiation. Did the scientist know about this hazard? Some say if they didn't they should have. Later when the H-bomb was tested in the Pacific many Islanders suffered deadly doses of radiation and most feel it was on purpose. The government wanted to see the results and humans were used as guinea pigs. This year marks 75 years since the United States launched its immense atomic testing program in the Pacific. The historical fallout from tests carried out over 12 years in the Marshall Islands, then a UN Trust Territory governed by the US, have framed seven decades of US relations with the Pacific nation. It is estimated that the lives of 400,000 Islanders were shortened by various forms of cancer. This ranks right up there with the Tuskegee Institute where Blacks were used to test drugs for syphilis although it effected far fewer people the game was the same.

Project Veritas

James O'keefe is a conservative journalist who heads a group called Project Veritas. They specialize in secretly recording activities in groups or businesses. In some of their more sensational projects they uncovered Planned Parenthood selling fetal parts and ACORN employees offering illegal advice. Late last year tipsters approached O'keefe saying they had the diary of Ashley Biden and it contained explosive allegations about her father Joe Biden. O'Keefe did not publish the information and turned the diary over to the authorities. This past week the FBI raided the home of O'Keefe as part of an investigation into a stolen diary. The NY Times reported the raid took place early Saturday morning just days after the homes of two Project Veritas associates were also the subject of search warrants. Two questions immediately come up. First how did the Times find out so much about this so quickly and second what is the FBI doing investigating the theft of a diary. O'Keefe claims that the agents took material not directly connected to the diary and that the Times reported some of this material. This follows on the heels of last February when Twitter permanently suspended Veritas account because they published private information.

Tough on crime

A representative of Black Lives Matter has said that the newly elected mayor of New York should not crack down on crime. The reason for this is that crime in New York is disproportionately caused by young Black males. Most people know this is true for murders but it is also true for other crimes. 27% of all crimes not including rape are committed by Blacks, mostly Black males between ages of 15 and 45. The rep is right to have concern because if the new mayor has a get tough on crime policy then young Black men will be charged however they may not be incarcerated unless the mayor also makes some changes in the court system.

SALT

State and local taxes (SALT) has been a controversial issue since Trump limited the deduction to $10,000. Most people do not reach that amount when they add up their state income tax and their property tax so this hurts wealthy people. The democrats were upset with Trump because they said this effects the blue states where most of the rich people live. In Biden's new program this SALT limit will be increased to $80,000 and this will give a tax break to upper income people. A couple living in MN with a family income of $500,000 would pay $45,000 in MN state income tax. If they owned a $500,000 dollar home their property tax would be $40,000 so under the propose change they could deduct almost all of this. If this new law is confirmed it will save this couple about $25,000 in federal income taxes.

Race or politics

In August of 2020 a white police officer Rusten Sheskey shot and killed a Black man Jacob S. Blake, and this resulted in riots in Kenosha, WI. During the riots a white man Kyle Rittenhouse shot three white men, two of whom died. As the Rittenhouse trial comes to an end cities are preparing for riots if he is found not guilty. The riots that occurred throughout last year were about racial injustice but when a white person kills another white person it is hard to see any racial angle. It appears to be more political than racial

Prices

Inflation is a concern and according to Econ 101 it is caused by too much money chasing too few goods. In the past 20 years the money supply has increased from $5 trillion to almost $20 trillion. It has increased $5 trillion in just the past year and the government is getting set to add another $1.75 trillion. The government didn't get this money from taxes but from the federal reserve where it was created from nothing. IRS has sent $6 billion in stimulus payments just in June. Most people have spent this money and are now facing higher prices for their necessities like food, gas and home heating.

Vets

Sometimes teachers ask me to talk to students about working. I tell them we need people who can read and write and by that I mean read a ten page essay and write me a one page summery. More important than academic skills are the social skills and personal characteristics. We need people who can get along with others, people who can work as a team, people who are self starters, people who have self discipline, people who are well mannered and people who understand personal hygiene. I write this today because all of those skills are learned in the military and gives credence to the call to hire a Vet.

High energy cost

It is difficult to determine what President Biden's energy policy is but harkens back to former President Obama when he said your, "under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket". Perhaps Biden wants to reduce oil production to drive up the price of gasoline so people would be more likely to purchase an EV. This of course has little effect on wealthy people. The same goes for higher home heating cost. The solution to higher cost is simple, just increase production but maybe higher cost is the objective.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day, our most important holiday, for if it were not for this day there would be no holidays. Say Hi to a Vet today.

Equality or equity

The American Medical Association this month released an equity-focused program that criticizes meritocracy, individualism and the free market. This represents an anti-capitalism view. They feel that the way medical disease should be discussed is in terms of economic status. For example the doctor should not say that low income people have the highest level of heart disease. They should instead say, people underpaid and forced into poverty as a result of banking policies, real estate developers gentrifying neighborhoods, and corporations weakening the power of labor movements have the highest level of heart disease. Meritocracy means people should earn more based on their merit. Individualism means people should be judged as individuals not by the group they belong to. Free market means everyone can achieve according to their effort. 20% of full time medical school faculty are Asian Americans while only six percent of the population fall into this group. This happened because this group out works the competition, meritocracy, they did it on their own, individualism and finally they were afforded the opportunity because of the free market. In 2021 there were 11,240 Asian American applicants to medical schools and 4,300 Black applicants. Today 17% of active physicians are Asian Americans 5% are Black in spite of the fact that Blacks at 12% represent twice as many people in the population. This organization appears to promote the idea that Blacks need special help and smacks of what Bush called the soft bigotry of low expectations. Schools have followed this pattern for years and it has failed to help Black students.

Center right

The US is a center right country. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Americans continued to lean more Democratic than Republican in their party preferences in 2019, the ideological balance of the country remained center-right, with 37% of Americans, on average, identifying as conservative during the year, 35% as moderate and 24% as liberal. The democratic party is being pulled to the left by a small but noisy group who have leverage because of the close count in the house. Most Americans want secure borders, local police departments, the three R's in schools, made in America, strong military, energy independence, low inflation and low taxes. Most Americans believe in individual rights over group rights. Most of us are proud to be Americans—and with good reason. Other than the United States of America, no other nation on earth was designed with the primary purpose of promoting and protecting the rights of the individual. In this respect, our republic stands alone.

Teachers

Over the years, in particularly since the Great Society, teachers have been asked to take on additional responsibilities which have little to do with academics. It started slow and teachers did their best to respond but in time it just got to be too much to handle. The emphasis on the three R's was replaced with dealing with social and cultural problems. As most teachers grew weary of these new responsibilities some responded with new enthusiasm. Some teachers, especially those in social studies, have become reformers desiring to make amends for past offenses committed by the government. They uses such historical events as slavery and mistreatment of Native Americans as rallying points to promote that America is a country of systemic racism. While these events are historically true and need to be studied they must be reviewed and then followed up with the progress that has been made over the years. It does not make sense to blame people living today for events that happened long before they were born.

Trump coup

The investigation of the January 6 riot in DC is based on the premise that Trump incited people to overthrow the government. News reports say that many people still believe that Trump really won the election and this is reported almost daily in some media or another. The fact that similar numbers of people still believe that Trump colluded with the Russian is rarely reported. New polling by Ipsos released  on Thursday found that 51 percent of Americans view the actions of Trump's supporters as an attempted coup Mar 26, 2019 — Nearly half of all Americans still believe President Donald Trump worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Thanksgiving

Several years ago an attempt was made to cancel Christmas but it failed because of lack of support. More recently a push to get rid of Thanksgiving is the news. The reason given is that it celebrates a time when native Americans lost their land and their culture to invading colonist. This assumes that these natives would have been better served if the New World had not been discovered. Would they still be tribal and fighting over land. Indians fighting Indians was a common occurrence. Would they still be living in tents in the forest or on the plains. In 2019, 25% of Native Americans over the age of 25 had an associate degree or higher. How about Black Americans. They would all be living in Africa where per capita income is less than $2,000 per year. If the past could be changed many things would be better but also many things would be worse. If a poll were taken would these two groups prefer that the colonist had never come? Which way would they be better off today?

Kickbacks

Our government at work. Back when Obama care was passed there were two holdout senators who needed addition encouragement. Landrieu got $300 million for Louisiana called the new Louisiana Purchase. Nelson from Nebraska got a $100 million called the cornhusker kickback and this was later rescinded but after the vote. This time 19 Republican senators voted for the infrastructure plan. It remains to seen if any of these votes were encouraged.

Separated families

The Biden administration announced it would pay immigrant families who were separated from their children under the Trump policy. Trump said that since the families broke the law in crossing the border they were arrested. Once they were arrested they were put in jail and the law says the children cannot be put in jail so they were separated. Trump followed the law in order to discourage other families from coming. The complaint by those who opposed this action was that children were separated from families just to keep other families from coming. If parents who are US citizens are arrested and sent to jail they are separated from their children because that is the law. The argument comes down to should families who enter the country illegally and thus break the law be separated as are families of US citizens or should they receive special treatment.

Infrastructure bill

Back in 2009 Obama passed an $800 billion dollar infrastructure bill which he said would start shovel-ready jobs. Of that $98 billion was dedicated to transportation and infrastructure and only $27 billion of that was actually spent. The number of jobs predicted did not materialize and to this day many can't figure out where the money went. Last night the house passed a $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill that contains $500 billion for transportation and infrastructure but this bill includes something called human infrastructure. Infrastructure—originally used to designate building and repairing road, bridges, railroads, and ports—has been expanded under President Biden to include human or social infrastructure which includes things like healthcare, childcare, education and job training. Many feel that the human part has the best chance of seeing results since it will not be hampered by environmental concerns and it provides government benefits to many people.

Oil production

Because of fracking the US started to export oil and achieved a certain amount of energy independence. Then things changed quickly when Biden was elected. The administration has put any new Alaskan production on permanent hold and frozen any new exploration and development auctions in the lower 48 states and offshore. One of the results is a hike in the price of gasoline by more than one dollar since the election and Biden is concerned so he asked OPEC to increase production. When Energy Secretary Granholm was asked about this she said she did not control OPEC and they refuse to increase production. Why she just didn't say the US will increase production is a mystery.

Minn

The city of Minneapolis voted to keep the police department but the surprising thing is that 44% of the people voted to replace the police with social workers. City council members who were for defund the police lost their jobs. The question arises how did anyone think you could run a major city, where murder is on the upswing, without a police department. How did anyone think you could send a social worker to a robbery in process scene. Most experts say that even a family dispute is a dangerous place for police officers. It seems that common sense has returned. Now maybe steps can be taken to reduce the murder rates that have risen across the country.

School board elections

In yesterdays school board elections in Minnesota one of the larger district, Rosemont, Apple Valley, the winners received about 8,000 votes. There are 2,000 teachers in this district. Unlike the general public, the teachers are organized and interested in this election. The result is that they can generally elect members who are sympathetic to the teachers needs. Just as the teachers union puts teachers first, the elections also put teachers in control. When the union sits down to negotiate with the school board they are looking across the table at people they helped to elect and will help to re-elect assuming they get a pro teacher program. In addition the board is not working with their own money but rather tax payer funds. Contrast this to private unions where the negotiators have a truly adversarial relationship and they are dealing with shareholder money.

Black murders

Sometimes the best way to describe something is to say what it isn't. When it comes to Wokeism this example may work. Here is some factual information that cannot be stated without being called racist. Twelve percent of Americans are Black and half of those or six percent are male and half of those or three percent are Black males between the ages of 15 and 40 and those three percent commit 55% of the murders and 90% of those murders are Black males killing Black males. People do not know these statistics but they see what happens every weekend in cities like Chicago and they know that something is wrong in the Black community. If you talk about single moms which means poverty, crime and drugs in the inner cities you are, once again, not Woke. The cry of racism is keeping white people quiet and this results in a lot of Black people being murdered. The elections yesterday may be a wake up call to the Woke, excuse the verbiage, and get people to start recognizing what is going on.

PACs

People often ask how a politician can become so wealthy. Many earn extra funds by giving speeches and writing books but one way that is often overlooked, perhaps on purpose, is something called a leadership PAC. In a regular PAC the left over funds from a campaign cannot be used for personal use but a leadership PAC is not covered by these rules. A leadership PAC is established and controlled by an individual holding public office and candidates can transfer left over funds into this PAC and the personal use rule does not apply. You can use it for travel, you can use it for dinner, concert tickets, all in the name of fundraising. There's just not that much scrutiny on it. And politicians have used their leadership PACs quite lavishly. It could make for a nice retirement plan when a Pol leaves officer by choice or otherwise.

Going green

As the push for climate change moves slowly toward nuclear another factor comes into play and that is land usage. Solar fields and wind farms require 360 times as much land as a thorium nuke plant. The land must be cleared of all natural growth meaning the destruction of natural habitats for many species. Where are the environmentalist. Are they quite because of politics. Where are the scientist to tell people that you cannot replace fossil fuels with wind and solar. Do they have a vested interest in solar panels. Are the people getting subsidies controlling the news. These are valid questions for people who are concerned about climate change.