Covid drugs

Trump announced on Friday October 2, 2020 that he tested positive for Covid and he went to Walter Reed hospital where he received some medication including Regeneron, remdesivir, famotidine, melatonin, vitamin D, Zinc and aspirin. The following Monday he returned to work in the White House. This was before the vaccine was approved. This treatment was not approved by the FDA “I want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president,” he said in an Oct. 7 video. Because this treatment was not approved by the FDA many people who wanted this could not get it as doctors could not prescribe without approval. Whether many others who died could have lived is unknown.

Stay the course

Many in the press are expressing surprise that the Biden Administration is not coming up with new approaches to governing based on the low poll results but they seem steadfast in maintaining the present course. The President did say he was going to get out of DC and meet the people but some wonder about this since he has trouble when he goes off script. Interesting enough cable news is following Biden's lead when it comes to holding course. FNC has been bucking the recent trend of declining cable news viewership, with a year-over-year gain of nearly 10 percent, while both CNN (down 77 percent) and MSNBC (down 63 percent) saw steep declines. In spite of the ratings decline these stations are staying with their main format of covering the January 6 investigation, Trump followers who believe the election was rigged, while avoiding the border, crime and inflation. Time will tell if these strategies will pay off. An old adage says when you find yourself in a hole the first thing to do is stop digging.

Oil and gas

Many news reports state that Germany is one of our best allies in Europe but there are some who question that. Germany has high import taxes on US products while the US is the opposite, for example, US cars going to Germany are charged a 10% import fee while German cars coming to the US face a 2% import fee. Germany closed down its nuclear power plants and are now deeply dependent on Russian natural gas. They could import natural gas from the US but chose to allow Russia a new pipeline which by passed Ukraine and put Ukraine in a vulnerable position. Now that Russia is threatening Ukraine the Germans cannot do much about it. What does this mean for the German consumer? For existing customers electric and natural gas rates will increase by 63% this winter and new homes will pay 105% more. Meanwhile the US is producing less oil and natural gas causing prices to rise in the US about 30% this winter. Last year the US was energy independent but this year the US is importing oil from Russia. The result is gasoline prices have risen 50% in the past year. The US should open the spigots on oil and natural gas and bring down the world price of oil which has risen from $40 per barrel to $80 per barrel. This brings in an extra $320 million dollars per day to Russia whose GDP is 60% oil and gas exports.

Child tax credit

The child tax credit started in 1997 at $400 per year for each child under the age of 17. This was nonrefundable meaning you received the credit even if you didn't owe any tax. It was increased to $1,000 in 2012 and then $2,000 in 2017 where it remained until the pandemic hit. It was then increased to $3,000 for each child under 17 including $3,600 for children under age 6. Besides increasing the amount the payments were sent out monthly instead once per year at tax filing time. These extra monthly payments stopped last month and a poll taken by NBC indicated that the majority of the 36 million parents receiving these checks were disappointed. These payments will now return to the pre- pandemic $2,000. This is an example of what happens when you give out a benefit, even for a short time, how difficult it is to stop.

Smiles

Smiling releases endorphins, which helps a person feel happier and more positive. When I sub I always stand at the door and welcome the students so they can see that I am looking forward to working that day. I tell the other teachers that I try to win the students over with my friendly smile. The past two years I have not seen any smiles and the students have not seen my smile. One of the more important things students learn in school is how to read people by watching their body language and their facial expressions. The wearing of masks makes this difficult and these children, especially in the lower grades, will have to play catch up. When students leave school and go out into the work place it is imperative that they have these social skills. With the benefit of hindsight, schools should have remained open and without masking students.

Biden border

In 2021 there were over 100,000 deaths from over dose drugs and 75,000 of those were from fentenyl. This drug is sent to Mexico from China and then brought across the border by illegal immigrants. The border patrol is overwhelmed by the 2 million illegals caught last year while another estimated 600,000 escaped. Many of these illegals are flown to various parts of the United States and told to show up for a court date but they don't show. In making the long journey across Mexico many women and girls are molested and others are robbed. When President Biden was asked about the border problems he said they were caused by Trump and no further follow up questions were asked. If a person does not watch Fox News the are likely not aware of the problems at the border. Cable stations like CNN and MSNBC rarely mention the border and Biden doesn't talk about it and he says he will visit the border when all of his policies are implemented but no date was given for that. Recently a reporter asked Biden about the Border and he responded by saying it was a stupid question but offered no answer to the question.

Supreme court Justice

As the President begins the process of nominating a new justice his words from the campaign are being repeated. He said he would select a Black female. There are a number of well qualified Black female judges who could do a proper job as a justice. The problem is that the charge could be leveled that they would not have gotten the job if they had not been Black and female. This has been around since affirmative action started in the early 70's. When a women got a job or a promotion the rumors swirled around that she only got the job because she was a women. These types of feelings were so common that the phrase token Black or toke woman came into usage. The constitution does not specify the requirements to be a justice which means there are no requirements, that anyone can be a justice. Instead of selecting a candidate from the general public Biden has limited his selection to 6% of the population leaving out the other 94%. He made that campaign promise for political reasons. He did the same thing selecting a vice president. It is as if the color of your skin or your gender speaks to your qualifications.

All laws matter

To some Black lives matter but to many of those same people all lives matter is not acceptable. The same is true with laws. While some say we are a country of law they don't mean all laws. We have millions of illegals crossing the southern border and many of those are being sent to various cities throughout the country. Even though these people are all breaking the law in this case the law doesn't matter. In many cities laws are being adjusted to allow criminals to conduct what used to be illegal activities without being punished. To say that the law will not be applied to anyone who steals less than $950 is making a mockery of the law. In parts of NY City a person can rob a bank using a gun but if they don't fire the gun the charge will be down graded.

Masks

Schools in our area must follow the case rate rule for mask. When the number of county cases show 10 or more new Covid cases per 10,000 population in any 14 day period then mask are mandated. No explanation is given as to why these numbers. Did a small group of people sitting around in a room come up with this number. Did anyone ask them why. The lives of children are being affected is serious ways. Maybe if the case load was 20 no schools would require masks. No one knows.

Before and after

The story of the before and after. August 2020. At least 13 cities have cut police budgets. December 2021. Americas biggest cities to invest more in police departments. These cities thought you could spend less on policing and not have an increase in crime. Instead of weeding out bad cops and instituting new training these cities thought they could solve problems by reducing police presence. Attempts to help police were met with derisive comments. People who said Blue Lives Matters were attacked as being racist. Once again politics muddies up the issue.

Votes

The democrats are pushing for election reforms stating that current rules make it difficult to vote. A 2008 surge in Black voters nearly erased the racial gap. Historically speaking Black citizens voted at higher rates than in any presidential election. The election was more diverse than any in history. In 2012 Blacks voted at higher rates than whites. Joe Biden breaks Obama's record for most votes ever cast for a U.S. presidential candidate

Women's sports

In 1972 the government passed a law called Title IX which brought equality to women's sports. The result has been a crowning success. Women can now compete in many levels and enjoy the fruits that competition brings. In 1972 there were 295,000 female athletes in high school and today there are 2.6 million. Many women's rights groups championed this new law but today they are mostly silent as the whole program is threatened by transgender males competing in women's events. Not all advantages for transgenders can be measured by testosterone levels. Some advantages like bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity and large heart size remain. This challenge like so many these days will be complicated by politics.

Wag the dog

Back during the Clinton administration when the Lewinsky scandal was at its peak the government took several controversial actions that some in the press thought were designed to take the news away from the scandal. The first was the bombing of an aspirin factory in Africa which was followed up with the bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The coincidence was so obvious that Hollywood produced a movie called Wag the Dog depicting a made up war in Albania where the government went to war to distract the public. Is it possible that military action in Ukraine could be used to move attention away from the current problems facing the administration. Not in the real world but the fact that it is even considered is a bit disturbing.

Is Ukraine Libya

Back in the Obama administration three female advisers convinced the president to invade Libya. They based this on the UN doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect". These women Hilary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Powers worked behind the scenes to make policy. Susan Rice and Samantha Powers are advisers in the Biden administration. Will they be influential in how Biden deals with Ukraine? Does the United States have the responsibility to protect the Ukrainian people from the Russians or did these women learn their lesson in Libya.

Ukraine

President Biden is considering sending several thousand US troops to the Baltics. On March 8, 1965 the first 3,500 US troops were sent to Viet Nam. This action received overwhelming support of the American people but by June the number of troops had risen to 82,000 and the generals were asking for up to 170,000 by the end of the year. In early 1966 a small but vocal anti war movement began. This time the support of the people is about half and those old enough to remember Nam are mostly not in that half. Some broadcasters like Tucker Carlson are strongly opposed to sending troops until someone in government can explain why this is needed to protect the United States. Polls show that 54% of democrats and 51% of republicans support sending troops. It is time to ask a lot of questions, things like what is the objective and what is the plan to achieve that objective and finally what would be considered a victory and is there an exit strategy.

Trumps twitter

Former President Trump is launching a social program much like twitter in the next few weeks. It will be the equivalent of Fox News on a social platform. If it is as successful as Fox it will soon be competitive with existing social media outlets. It will be popular because it will fill a need as current social networks lean left and often times censor material they deem to be dis information. While the impetus for this has many causes one of the most egregious was the with holding of information about Hunter Biden before the election.

Biden on crime

Crime rates increased slowly during the 1950's and accelerated in the late 60's and through the 70's and 80's then leveling out in the early 90's. The Clinton crime bill was passed in 1994 and there was a dramatic drop in crime and that continued until two years ago. Murder rates per 100,000 in the 50's were 4.5 and rose to 9.5 in the 80's and then dropped back to 4.5. President Biden was known for his stance against crime and was instrumental in getting the crime bill through senate. Biden was criticized for his work on the bill as the liberals began a shift toward reducing penalties on criminals. He then apologized for his part in the crime bill and joined forces to restructure police departments as a part of which was to reallocate resources away from direct policing to things like using social workers to handle certain types of police work. As city governments moved to reduce penalties and removing bond restrictions crime rose quickly and today Biden says he is for increasing funding for police. He has to walk a fine line between getting tough on crime and not alienating the far left of his party a small but powerful group that wants to keep no bail policies and reducing many felonies to misdemeanors. Polls show that crime is a big issue for voters and only 36% approve of how Biden is handling crime.

Ukraine

As the world watches the situation in the Ukraine unfold, experts ask if this is a repeat of Hitler's move for power. When Putin took control in Russia in 2012 he said the worst thing that happened in the 20th century was the demise of the Soviet Union. He wanted to rectify that much like Hitler wanted to reverse the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler started with the annexation of the Rhineland in 1936, followed by taking over Austria in March of 1938, then the Sudentenland in September of 1938 and Czechoslovakia March of 1939. The West finally responded in September of 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland but with the benefit of hindsight, many feel the West should have acted sooner. The 2008 war with Georgia allowed Putin to enter the country and take territory. In 2014 Putin annexed Crimea and then moved troops into eastern Ukraine. The world once again sits on the precipice of powerful country attacking its weaker neighbors in order to add territory. As with Germany the US, an ocean away, says it is the responsibility of Europe to slow down the advance of Russia. The argument centers around the question, is Russia moving into Ukraine a threat to the safety of the United States. Just like in the 1930's most Americans say no. Can another proxy war be avoided if the US increases supplies of oil and natural gas while convincing Germany to cancel the Russian gas pipeline and applying economic pressure through the international banking system?

Thorium

One pound of thorium will produce as much energy as 200 pounds of uranium or 3,500,000 pounds of coal. Uranium is mostly U 238 (99.3%) which cannot be used. Only the .7% U 235 is fissile. All of thorium can be used. Burning this amount of coal would produce over 200,000 pounds of ash which contains many contaminates like heavy metals. One of those is thorium which can be separated out and used for nuclear fuel. One ton of thorium can produce one GW per year which will power a modern city of one million people for one year. Thorium can be mined without producing dangerous by products and has very little waste to dispose.

Parents vs the law

Many parents are expressing surprise at some of the things their children are leaning in school that have little to nothing to do with the 3 R's. Parents in the dark is not a new thing. California is planning on allowing children to get the Covid vaccine without parental permission. Children can get birth control and have an abortion without the parents approval but they must follow certain legal procedures. Many young people are familiar with these rules. They are designed to circumvent the parents so that young women can get birth control and have abortions. It must be quite a shock for a parent to find out after the fact that their daughter had an abortion.

Covid relief

The Covid Relief Act was passed in the spring of 2020. It was a $2.2 trillion dollar plan to send money to the people. One part of it was to help small business cover expenses. Over the summer and into the fall and then into 2021 complaints kept coming up about the businesses not getting any help. The mystery was recently solved when the government announced: Criminals have stolen close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday.The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a another program set up to dole out unemployment assistance funds nationwide.

Victim vs criminal

Man stabs woman 13 times. These represent the bare facts in the case but in time the situation will unnecessarily become more complicate. The man is Black and has a long rap sheet of various crimes of violence. He comes from a broken home and was raised mostly by street gangs. He dropped out of school at 16 and started dealing and subsequently using drugs. He was never given a fair shake in school because he lacked self discipline and had never learned respect for authority. His grand father grew up in the south in the days of Jim Crow and told him he would always be treated as a second class citizen because he was Black. His father died young from a drug overdose and his younger brother was killed in a drive by. Notice how the feeling suggested by the opening facts seem to drift into morass of societal guilt that somehow he was not really responsible for his actions. After all when you look at this countries history of slavery how could he be fully responsible. This kind of thought process started the push for criminal reforms and some feel the push has been too far that concern for the criminal is now more important than concern for the victim.

Unvaxed

President Biden has said on numerous occasions that the unvaxed are a threat to public safety and the cause of the continued death count from Covid. In February, Secretary Mayorkas directed ICE to focus its civil immigration enforcement resources on threats to national security, border security, and public safety. In spite of that each month almost 200,000 unvaxed illegals cross the border and another 60,000 unvaxed enter while avoiding the guards. Then to compound the issue many of these unvaxed are shipped by bus or plane to various parts of the country making it easier to spread.

Uyghurs

Never again is happening again and once again the world stands by a watches. In the Western Province of Xinjiang in China a minority group known as Uyghurs have lived there for over 6,000 years. There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Communism is not compatible with religion or as Marx said, religion is the opiate of the masses. China, being a dictatorship, can keep secrets but certain information leaks out and there is strong evidence that the Uyghurs are being tortured and used as slave labor. This time there is a new twist. Not only are these crimes being ignored, they are being encouraged by western countries who enjoy the cheap labor. Slaves in China have made your sneakers and smartphones. 83 major brands implicated in report on forced labor of ethnic minorities from Xinjiang assigned to factories across provinces. When everyone joins in the chorus of badmouthing these companies they can then turn their attention to all the consumers who are purchasing these products. Look in the mirror. There is plenty of blame to go around. We asked of the Greatest Generation, why didn't you do something about the holocaust. Will today's children one day ask the same.

Russian oil

The perfect storm began last year when the US went from energy independent to energy dependent. Meanwhile Germany has closed down all but three of its 26 nuclear power plants and the last three will close this year. The US no longer objects to the new gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. The price of oil has doubled in the past year and the price of natural gas to Russia's biggest customer, Europe, has quadrupled. Putin has amassed a large capital reserve so he is less vulnerable to economic sanctions and has developed a relationship with China to sell record amount of oil to China. Russia is supplying more oil to the U.S. than any other foreign producer aside from Canada as American refiners scour the globe for gasoline-rich feedstocks to feed surging motor-fuel demand. Gas Prices Hit Record High on Russian Supply Squeeze. Would it be wise for the US to crank up oil production to bring down the price and stop buying oil from Russia. Would it be wise for Europe to start buying natural gas from the US instead of Russia. Would it be wise for the US to increase production of natural gas to lower the world price helping US consumers along with those in Europe. Is it time to change our energy strategy?

Thorium

When a thorium reactor is started a mixture of sodium fluoride and a small amount of thorium fluoride is heated to the melting point of about 1,000 degrees Celsius. A small amount of uranium 233 is added and this causes the thorium to decay into more U 233 which releases a large amount of heat. The reaction is self sustaining in that when it gets hotter it expands and the neutrons are less likely to hit one another and the temperature drops at which time the number of hits increase and the temperature rises. New thorium is added as needed and the reaction will continue until the thorium feed stops. If anything interferes with the feed the plant will shut down. The heat is then transferred to a loop (heat exchanger) where it heats helium gas to high pressure which is used to drive the turbines to make electric power. There is so much heat left over that it can be used to desalt sea water. These plants operate at regular atmospheric temperature so there is no need for very large containment dome meaning the plants themselves can be manufacture in an assembly line manner in modules. A 300 MW reactor would fit on a flatbed truck and weigh about 15 tons. This could power 300,000 homes. For larger cities reactors would be hooked together. A 1,000 MW plant requires one square mile of space. By comparison the same size power plant using wind requires 250 square miles. Reactors could be sent to isolated areas to desalt water for agricultural use. Almost free electrical energy with few mining and/or disposal products and zero carbon.

Vietnam

These days, when many Americans are looking toward socialist ideas to reach income equity using the Obama phrase of spread the wealth around, it is time to review the recent history of post war Viet Nam. The first step of the new Communist government was to ban private ownership of property. People were relocated to rural areas to form collectives. In these everyone shared the work and the products from work evenly what is today called equity. The Viet people, who by nature were entrepreneurial, were not comfortable sharing the fruits of the labor began to flee the country and many came to the United States. These new immigrants became responsible citizens and many successful business owners, meanwhile back in Nam the economy collapsed and collectivism once again failed. The economy of Vietnam remained in dire straights until the mid 80's when they followed the China policy of opening up to free market principals led by large numbers of small businesses much like the Vietnamese Americans have done. If one compared the economies of North and South Viet Nam before the war the data shows that the GDP of the south under free market rules was twice that of the North under communist rules .

Teachers

Back in the day the responsibilities of teachers revolved around the 3 r's but over time that changed. In the latter part of the last century families began to break up and teachers were asked to take on some of the duties that parents were neglecting. Over the past 30 plus years this trend continued and today parents are complaining that teachers have overstepped their bounds. This is a matter of communication since teachers would gladly return parenting duties to the parents but parents must be willing to accept the responsibility. There are some teachers who feel that their ideas on how children should be raised are more important that what the parents think and they should rethink their position. Most teachers would much rather concentrate on the subject matter and not have to contend with family matters. This would also improve the performance of the students. Once again politics has entered the picture and the issue is clouded to the point where the well fare of the children is hanging in limbo while teachers and parents try to iron out their misunderstandings.

Oil price

The price of oil started to rise when President Biden took office reaching a high of $84 on October 22, 2021. The price then started down and on November 22 the price was $78. Biden then announced the withdrawal of 50 million barrels from the strategic reserve. The price then fell to $66 on December 2 and today the price is back over over $84. It is difficult to determine the effect of the Biden action since the price was on the way down before he acted but for sure the action was short lived.

DC riots

When Trump lost the election many felt that right wing extremist would cause trouble. The country had just been through the long summer of riots in dozens of cities causing billions in damages including setting afire buildings including some government buildings. Many businesses were destroyed along with at least two dozen people who lost their lives. Soon after the November election local DC authorities were notified of a threat to invade the Capitol Building. The NY Times said: Despite being tipped that “Congress itself is the target” on Jan. 6, Capitol Police were ordered not to use their most powerful crowd-control weapons, according to a scathing new watchdog report. The report offers the most devastating account to date of the lapses and miscalculations around the most violent attack on the Capitol in two centuries.

Voter rules

Certain left wing liberals would like to change the voter laws in order to get more people to participate and while that is a laudable goal they way they want to do it could allow voter fraud. They want to send ballots to all registered voters, not to require signatures or ID and allow for ballot harvesting. Lets assume they are able to achieve these ends. In a short time each party would hire large numbers of people to go door to door to collect ballots and many time these collectors would help the voters fill out the ballots. They would then take the ballots to drop boxes. Ballots coming in weeks before the election would be legal. In time the election results would not represent what the voters wanted but how efficient the ballot collectors were. This would likely result in voter turnout of plus 90%. It would increase the number of votes counted but also open the door to voter fraud.

Inflation

Inflation is sneaky. Looking at any one item is doesn't seem like much but in the big picture it can be a burden. Xcel energy expects home heating cost to increase about $25 per month Average family spends $6,600 on food and the prices are expected to increase by 15% or $82 /month Average person drives 1,200 miles per month and getting 30 mpg means an extra $40 per month. The Fed will raise rates four times this year meaning that loan rates will go up by one percent. On a $200,000 mortgage that will be an extra $100 per month. These items together come to $247 per month. For low income people this is significant. This will be a new experience for anyone under age 50.

Subs

As most everyone is aware there is a shortage of substitute teachers. The best subs are retired teachers who come back to work in their old areas of expertise. The next best are retired teacher who come back in any area and finally there those, like myself, who have no teaching experience. While I have knowledge of the subject matter I am not a teacher. I can teach in math and science but I am limited. I can stand at the blackboard and solve problems but it the student doesn't understand all I can do is solve more problem. I have subbed as a co-teacher in math class and I observed how they use a different approach at times to help the student understand. Math is taking a big hit with this mess in the schools. Each year is dependent of what was learned the year before. A freshman student who does not understand fractions which were supposed to be learned in eighth grade, is in trouble. Once you get behind in math it just snow balls. This all comes crashing down in the junior year where algebra 2 and chemistry are required course. That is a mistake. If you are going to study science or engineering then these coursed are necessary otherwise they are not. It is very disheartening to sit is a classroom were 6 to 8 students have no idea what is going on they are so far behind there is no way to help them. Perhaps if the teacher could work one on one with this student they could overcome this deficiency but there is not time for that.

Afghan

The United State has always been generous when it comes to helping other countries but often times the money and supplies never got to the people who most needed them. This is the current situation in Afghanistan. In the past few months the US has sent $787 billion dollars to the Afghans but the question comes up as to where did the money go. Did it go to starving children or to the Taliban soldiers. Is there anyway to check this out.

Nuclear option

The Biden administration is trying to get rid of the filibuster saying the nuclear option would used on a one time basis to pass the Voting Rights Bill. Two democratic senators are holding out and the bill will not pass without their help. If this did pass would there be another one time use in a few weeks to pass statehood for Washington DC and then in a few more weeks a bill to increase the number of justices. If the Voting Rights Bill were to pass it would be challenged in court and with the current court it would likely not pass much like the 6 to 3 vote today on the mandate to force business to make employees wear mask and get vaccinated.

China

When dealing with dictatorships like China you cannot depend on what they say. China has so far failed to meet its committed purchases of U.S. goods under the “phase one” trade deal that it struck with the Trump administration. In 2020, China imported $100 billion of the U.S. goods agreed to in the deal — roughly 58% of the targeted $173.1 billion, according to data compiled by Peterson Institute for International Economics. Meanwhile the US has purchased more than agreed upon.

Recession

Inflation was less than 2% for most of the post war years until 1968 when it jump to 3.5% and continued to rise. In the 1970's it was over 7% and in the late 70's it went to 13%. During these years interest rates followed inflation running about 5% and then rising to 20% in 1981. The Fed used its control over interest rates to fight inflation and it created a severe recession lasting almost two years to tame the inflation so that by 1983 it rate had declined to 7% and continued a downward path until this past year. Inflation returned to the 2% level but the recession was very painful. Since 2008 the Fed rate has been close to zero and that will change this year as the Fed is proposing to raise rates four times in 2022 and again in 2023. Will this cause a recession?

What's important

The latest poll I could find on what Americans think is important was taken by a site called Stistica in November of 2021 and here are the results. 1. Dissatisfaction with government....poor leadership 21% 2. Covid 13% 3. Economy in general 10% 4. Immigration 9% 5. Inflation 7% 6. Unifying the country 6% 7. Jobs 5% 8. Race relations 5% 9. Climate change 4% 10. Family decline 4% 11. Lack of respect for one another 3% 12. Court system and laws 3% 13. Poverty 3% Contrast that to the main stories in the news which are the January 6 riot and voting rights. Several well known liberals including Bill Mahr and James Carville are saying that the democrats are allowing the Woke part of their party to set the agenda and it will hurt them in the upcoming elections.

Liberal agenda

The latest poll I could find on what Americans think is important was taken by a site called Stistica in November of 2021 and here are the results. 1. Dissatisfaction with government....poor leadership 21% 2. Covid 13% 3. Economy in general 10% 4. Immigration 9% 5. Inflation 7% 6. Unifying the country 6% 7. Jobs 5% 8. Race relations 5% 9. Climate change 4% 10. Family decline 4% 11. Lack of respect for one another 3% 12. Court system and laws 3% 13. Poverty 3% Contrast that to the main stories in the news which are the January 6 riot and voting rights. Several well known liberals including Bill Mahr and James Carville are saying that the democrats are allowing the Woke part of their party to set the agenda and it will hurt them in the upcoming elections.

STEM

Yesterday I subbed at Park High and for the first time in almost two years I led the lesson. It was algebra 2 and they just started a new section on graphing functions. I didn't follow the way the teacher might have done because I am a chalk and blackboard kind of guy but this method worked for many years and algebra today is the same as it was in years past. Before the pandemic it was normal for me to help with the lesson but that is no longer the case. Most days I just tell the students to look for their assignment on their chrombooks and then I babysit. While a few students can learn this way most cannot and even under the best of conditions many struggle with algebra. Without algebra these students will not have a career in STEM, something the country is in dire need.

Dictators

Some in the west are concerned about the growing friendship between Russia and China but those two countries must be a bit leery as they recall the WW 2 agreement between Russia and Germany. When two dictators get together there is always mistrust as deals between such tyrants are not worth the paper they are printed on. The same can be said for any agreement between Iran and the West regarding nukes. Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un is in the same category. Discussions with dictators should always be suspect. History is replete with examples of dictators breaking their promises. Chamberlain return from shaking hands with Hitler in the Munich agreement saying peace is at hand and two months later Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. On a small scale during the Iraq war the Iraqi tanks would head toward the US forces with their gun turrets turned to the rear meaning surrender and when they got close enough they would turn and fire. The message is clear, watch what they do, not what they say.

Dunkirk

History buffs will remember Dunkirk, the seaport where 350,000 British and French troops were surrounded by the Germans in the early years of WW 2. Churchill sent boats of all sizes and shapes across the channel to rescue and they were able to evacuate everyone and all of Britain called it a great victory but Churchill, always the realist, said we left behind all of our equipment and wars are not won by evacuations. This whole situation was recently recreated as the US military left Afghanistan in a rush leaving behind all of their equipment and the evacuation was called a great achievement. Churchill would see things differently. If the US had first removed the people, then the equipment and then the military while keeping Bagram Air Base the situation could have been a successful end to the 20 year war but instead the US pulled the troops leaving the people and the equipment behind. How will history buffs remember this?

Thorium

Thorium is fertile but not fissile meaning thorium cannot maintain a chain reaction by itself. If a small amount of uranium 233 is introduced it will activate the thorium which will convert the thorium into more U 233 and this is fissile allowing the reaction to continue. As the thorium is used up more is added to keep the reaction going. If the thorium is stopped the reaction stops. Because of the power involved in nuclear fission one pound of thorium can produce the same energy as 5,000 tons of coal and it does so without producing any carbon dioxide. The reactor uses liquid salt. Salts are made from combining metals with non-metals. The best known salt is sodium chloride which is common table salt. Sodium a very active element combines with chlorine a deadly gas to form sodium chloride which is very safe. The salt used in thorium reactors is lithium fluoride. This salt is heated to a liquid and thorium dioxide another salt is added. This liquid salt mixture is circulated in a loop around the reactor and the fission process keeps the liquid salt very hot about 700 degrees C. Adjacent to this loop is another loop that contains lithium fluoride without the thorium dioxide. The heat is transferred from the first loop to the second loop and that loop is used to heat an inactive gas like helium. This heated gas under pressure is used to run the generator to produce electricity. The reactor works under normal pressure so if the power goes off the supply of thorium is shut off and the whole plant shuts down. There can be no melt down like uranium plants. Helium gas is used because if it escapes it poses no problem plus it has a very high specific heat meaning it conducts heat very well making for efficiency in the heat ex-changers.

Student loans

At the peak of the mortgage crisis of 2008 about 12 million homes were under water and the average home was worth $210,000 and they owed $270,000 so it would have taken $60,000 to save the home and the cost would have been $720 billion dollars. The government choose to save the banks from bad loans rather than save the homeowners from losing their homes. The government passed the $700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to purchase failing bank assets. The question came up at the time as to why they just didn't send enough money to each home owner to bring the home equity up to the price of the home. The answer given was that it would be far too cumbersome and much simple just to send money to a 1,000 banks instead of 12 million homeowners. Some in congress today are proposing cancellation of student loans. There are 43 million students with an average loan of $40,000 for a total of $1.6 trillion dollars. If it was too difficult to pay off 12 million homeowners will it be too difficult to pay off 43 million student loans or will this question even be raised.

Filibuster

President Biden's Build Back Better bill seems to be stalled and so he his looking toward passing a voting rights bill but in order to do that he must by-pass the senate filibuster and once again Joe Manchin stands in the way. The last time the democrats did this was when Harry Reed by-passed the filibuster so the democrats could approved judges with a simple majority vote. This back fired as Trump was able to confirm two new justices needing only 51 votes. Democrats are attempting to change not only the filibuster but also the number of justices and the electoral college.

Climate

The news reports about climate change in regards to the US actions are ignoring the elephant in the room. The U.S. remains off track to achieve its climate targets for 2025 and 2030, says the analysis, which relies on preliminary energy and economic data.  Emissions in 2021 jumped largely due to an increase in the use of coal for power generation, which rose about 17 percent. There was false hope that the pandemic would change the way things were done but that did not materialize. Without some major change the path the US is on will get them nowhere close to the 2030 climate goals. While the US can be blamed for not reaching its goals the elephant is China and India where coal is king. If the next election goes the way the experts are predicting the idea of using climate change to promote social change may fade away and the value of nuclear power may be seen as the answer.

Putin

The situation in Ukraine is beginning to look like the first German excursion into Austria. The excuse was that there were many Germans living in Austria. Putin said there were many Russians living in Crimea and in 2014 after Ukraine ousted its pro-Russian president, Putin invaded and annexed Crimea. Now Putin is saying that there are many Russian living in Ukraine and he is lining up troops on the border between Russia and Ukraine. He is demanding that the west pull its military out of countries that border Russia, the most obvious being Poland, that the west not try to expand NATO. In return he will not invade. If the west concedes to these demands most experts say Russia will then ask for further concessions. Throughout history dictators have never been satisfied and look to expand their territory and Russia appears to be no exception. The question is should the west give in or will there be another proxy war between the US and Russia. Putin has said that the worst thing that happened in his life was the fall of the old Soviet Union and at age 69 he wants to re-establish the USSR. The ball is in Biden's court.

Manchin

Here is a quot from the Washington Post. From the moment Sen. Joe Manchin III started raising concerns about President Biden’s social spending bill, the outrage hurled at him from some fellow Democrats was pointed and personal. Instead of talking with him about the policies in the plan they just resorted to personal attacks. This has been standard procedure for some time now. Rather than have a civil discussion about policy they just hurl insults. Manchin's family has been threatened. It is not too late. Biden can make some public statements about the plan and its policies and talk about the parts that Manchin likes. Meet again with Manchin and find out what he will go for and reach a compromise. Manchin offered a $1.8 trillion dollar compromise and it was rejected. Not too long ago that much money would have been a great victory. Get back together and work through that point by point and see what happens.

Whose working

The labor force participation rate measures the percent of people age 16 and over who are eligible and able to work and are working. The rate reached a high in 2000 at 67.1% and has fallen since from 66% in 2008 to 61.7% in 2020. There was a large drop from 63.1% in 2019 to 61.8% in 2021 and this was due to the pandemic. The long term drop is caused by a number of reasons including baby boomers retiring, young people remaining longer in college, moms leaving work as the cost of childcare increases and single women getting married. While there were many more people working in 2019 (157 million) than in 2000 (129 million) that would be expected since the population increased during those years from 282 million to 328 million. During the pandemic 25 million dropped out of the work force but 15 million of those have returned. That is why it is controversial when Biden says he has created 15 million jobs since taking office. We still have 10 million able bodied people sitting on the sidelines while there are 12 million unfilled jobs and businesses frantically look for help.

Free money

There are complaints that the Covid money is not being spent to fight Covid but on peripheral issues. It started with the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2000 and the nearly $900 billion stimulus included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Most recently the $1.9 trillion American American Rescue Plan was signed into law. Putting all this money into categories gives an idea of what went where. Direct payments $861 billion Unemployment $594 billion Small business $756 billion Community development $379 billion Transportation $159 billion Schools $289 billion\ Rent assistance $63 billion Nutrition and agriculture $73 billion Post office $20 billion Child care $55 billion Broadband $39 billion Covid relief fund $150 billion Employee retention $55 billion The government is now proposing Build Back Better at a real cost of $5 trillion and much of this will once again be direct payments to the people. Can the government just keep creating new money and sending checks to the people and if not what is the down side.

Teachers

The teachers in Chicago are not representative of the teachers in the Minneapolis area. I go to 14 different high schools in 6 different districts and have spent over 1,000 days in schools over the past eight years and I keep my eyes and ears open. The vast majority of teachers want to be in the classroom teaching in the way they did before Covid. They may differ on whether to use masks or not but they no longer feel it necessary to social distance. Many understand that the danger to students is almost nonexistent and almost all of the teachers are vaccinated so they want to get back to in classroom teaching.

Democratic socialism

Sometimes liberals express surprise when people consider them socialist. Some of this stems from the fact that many liberals feel that people cannot take care of themselves and need the help of government. Many also give the impression that they prefer government over private business. Communism gains a foothold when leaders believe that people left to their own volition will not do the right thing so government must act on their behalf. This is in contrast to Adam Smith the founder of free market capitalism who stated that each person out to promote their own well being will help the society in general. What many liberals are striving for is something called democratic socialism. Under democratic socialism, the ownership of private property is limited. The government regulates the economy. Different programs offer assistance and pensions. Democratic socialist strive to minimizes income inequality under the mantra of, from each according to his means, to each according to his needs. Thus things like progressing income taxes and wealth taxes seem to fit. The ideas of winners and losers must be replaced with equity.

Biden speech

Through out most of Biden's January 6 speech he concentrated on attacking Trump and Trump supporters. The NYT's said Mr. Biden usually reserves this kind of language to describe autocratic leadership in faraway countries, not other Americans. Tellingly, the speech contained no new concrete policy proposals for protecting democracy from ongoing efforts to subvert it. This is not the way to unite the country. Another liberal outlet VOX said: And in the areas where Biden has the power to act, like rallying Democrats to mount a response to state-level Republican attacks on democracy, he has been strikingly MIA . It is a continuation of the emphasis on personality and not on policy. In order for the democrats to maintain control in the upcoming elections they must move away from anti Trumpism and on to how they plan to change policies that will improve public safety, fight inflation, secure the border and keep students in school.

EV's

Here's a quote about the I 95 pile up. They were among hundreds of people who got stranded on the East Coast’s main north-south highway in freezing temperatures after a winter storm snarled traffic and left some drivers stuck in place for as much as a full day. Don't know if there were any electric cars there but if there were the chances are they ran out of heat long before the gas cars. People living in MN should think about this before the buy and EV.

Biden

As the end of Biden's first year approaches it is time for review. He started off great as the healer, the man who would bring the country together and that lasted for five months when he encountered the first snag. In August he withdrew our forces from Afghanistan and his job approval which was 57% at the time started a steady downward trend going to 43% in September and 41% today. He promised to have Covid under control by July 4th but he didn't count on variants. He sent out trillions in free money and inflation rose up. He stopped the border controls that Trump installed and illegals flooded across. Crime has become a major problem especially violent crime. The results of all of this can be seen in the polls. His approval rating on the economy is 40% on Covid is 45% on inflation 31% on the border 23% and on crime 36%. His major accomplishment was the passage of the long awaited infrastructure bill which provides $1.2 trillion dollars for various projects. These will not be underway for some time and many will be delayed by environmental concerns. Polls show there is serious concern about Biden's ability to serve a second term.

Gas price

Back in November of 2021 under pressure to do something about the price of gasoline, Biden released 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic research. Experts predicted this would have little to no effect on the price of gas but it would help politically. They were correct. The press no longer talks about the gas price.

School majors

General observations are easily dismissed as anecdotal but that doesn't preclude me from making one. When I was in school, I noticed that the morning classes were preferred by those studying science, business and math while afternoon classes were preferred by arts and fine arts students. This difference was also noticeable when it comes to being liberal or conservative with the liberals tending toward arts. That also represented the line between income after graduation. Now in high schools where mask are voluntary the teachers in English and social studies are more likely to wear masks than those in science and math. Is there also a difference in the politics of these two groups?

Illegal transfers

Reports are leaking in from many parts of the country that illegals are being bused in and flow in from the border. Many are unaccompanied minors who supposedly are going to stay with relatives but no one knows for sure since many news outlets are not interested. The placement of these children is important but not to the news people. When a white child disappears it is a big deal and the news coverage is extensive but these illegals who just vanish in the night seem not to matter. Many feel allowing these young people into the country is the compassionate thing to do but not making sure they are safe can pose a danger to them. The fact that many of these flights occur during the early morning hours gives the impression that the government is attempting to hide the issue.

Books

The subject of banning books is once again in the news and will continue into 2022. Some books in elementary school being banned are those talking about gays where pics of oral sex between men are considered inappropriate. Other schools are banning books like, To Kill A Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn. Is there any book no matter how extreme that should be banned. Should some books be banned from lower grades but not for high school. Although most people agree that books in general should not be banned everyone has a breaking point. While many feel that different life styles are okay they may balk when it comes to polygamy or child brides. How about books promoting sex with animals or advocating female genital mutilation. Some say, people who say nothing should be banned are virtue signaling showing how they are more tolerant than others. There is a big difference between having a book in school library and reading it in the classroom since picking the library book is a choice but the classroom is an assignment.

Thorium ore

Monazite is a mineral that contains rare earth metals and thorium. During the processing the thorium is separated from the other metals and until recently it was discarded. Today thorium is recognized as a possible fuel for nuclear reactors and can be saved thus providing an inexpensive source of fuel. With the tensions between China and the US growing and since China is the source of rare earth metals the US will be forced to start mining and processing its own source of these metals. This is just one more reason for looking to thorium nuke power to solve the problem of climate change. The US will either wake up to this reality or soon find itself relying on China for both rare earths and thorium as China is well on the way to manufacturing thorium plants for internal use and for export. These thorium reactors will be small units which can be combined as the need for power grows. They can be sent to the needed locations and assembled on site. The need for power is world wide and especially in third world countries where these reactors will be well suited.

Climate meetings

It is very difficult to research the cost of various energy products because much of the cost of renewables is hidden from the public to avoid showing the large amount of subsidies. Here is the best info I can find and it looks good for nuclear. The following is the cost per KWhr. Coal 5.6 cents, natural gas 4.8 cents, Wind 18.4 cents, Solar 23.5 cents, Biomass 9.7 cents, uranium nuclear 5.5 cents and finally small thorium plants 2 cents. One of the many nice things about thorium is that it is found every where so one country will not have to depend on any other country. One of the reasons that wind and solar are so high is that they only operate 30% of the time and they need backup. The 2 cents for thorium is low because it is based on the cost coming down as new units are produced. This is the cost of the 1000th unit. Initial cost with only a few units will be much higher. Many climate meetings have been held but until you can beat the cost of coal countries will only offer lip service which is what has been happening. Stockholm in 1982, Toronto 1988, Rio de Janeiro 1992, Kyoto 1997, Copenhagen 2009, Paris 2015, and Glasgow 2021.

Cuomo

Former Governor Cuomo of New York City sent thousands of Covid patients to a number of nursing homes throughout the city even though the Javits Center was turned into a Covid only hospital and the federal government sent a hospital ship to New York City just for Covid patients. This resulted in the deaths of an estimated 15,000 elderly patients dying from Covid. An investigation led by the Manhattan district attorney into the Cuomo administration's alleged mishandling of COVID-19 nursing home deaths has come to a close, a spokesperson for the former governor announced Monday. The probe into the any potential wrongdoing by the governor's Executive Chamber has seemingly concluded without the district attorney filing any criminal charges. There is a difference between irresponsible behavior and illegal behavior and this is a good example.

Student

Remote learning will work for serious students but for many this will not work. Abraham Lincoln was self educated. Andrew Crawford taught 14 year old Lincoln to read and for the rest of his life Lincoln learned by reading including becoming a lawyer. Students like Lincoln will do okay with distance learning but others need the discipline of the classroom. Perhaps closing schools the first time was a necessary precaution but closing again is overkill. Teachers are all vaccinated and those under age 18 are not any more in danger than from the regular flu.

Freedom

As social media companies continue to censor content based on criteria like information is false or misleading they are opening the door to competition. Government is not taking steps to rectify the situation so 2022 will be the year of new start ups to challenge companies like Facebook and there will be rapid growth in these new businesses. Freedom of speech is the backbone of protection for citizens and that is why it is in the first amendment. Expressing many sides of an issue is the road to freedom and there is no room for censorship. This has always been a bastion of liberalism and it will rise again like the phoenix. I may not like what you say but I will defend your right to say it is the motto of freedom seeking people.

Free speech

Some of the high tech companies like Facebook and Twitter have found a way around the first amendment by calling certain speech misleading or inaccurate. The most recent example happened just before Christmas. “there was a small but noisy group of responders to our ads who didn’t like the fact we published books about Ronald Reagan, Thomas Sowell, and Amy Coney Barrett.” Facebook has banned a publisher for conservative children’s books, citing what it called “disruptive” content. Facebook later put the ads back up but this was after the big Christmas buying days. This is an ongoing thing with these companies and leaves the interpretation of the first amendment up to what someone considers disruptive. It is another road in the path toward banning speech that one disagrees with and this is the very essence of the first amendment and that being to challenge speech in open debate not to ban.

Percent

One common math trick used to distort the truth is to use percentages. For example if you have 1,000 gigets and you get 50 more you have increased your supply by 5%. If I have 100 and get 50 more I have increased my total by 50%. Keep this in mind when reading statistics and check actual numbers. A good example is in the news today where Tesla announced it sold 87% more cars in 2021 than it sold in 2020. The sales in 2021 were 936,000. Toyota sales decreased by 5% and they sold 6.5 million cars.

Renewables

There is a fresh new wind blowing in the climate story and it is a welcome change. Several leading environmentalist have come to the conclusion that we cannot make the transfer from coal to renewables without the help of natural gas. If they believe this then the first step is to use natural gas for transportation but they are faced with the electric car push. If natural gas is used in power plants and transportation this give renewables the time they need to catch up. Even with such a change those pushing renewables have yet to face the problem of air travel which they would like to avoid for the time being. Oh where are the thorium nuke people when we need them?

Eric Adams

Former NY mayor de Blasio disbanded an undercover police group saying it was racist and arrested mostly Blacks. Arrest statistics proved that he was correct and many agreed with his decision. Eric Adams, the new mayor, has reinstated the use of these undercover units and the question now arises, is he a racist. This is very awkward since Adams is Black. Could it be that the undercover group has nothing to do with racism but rather the fact that a disproportional number of crimes are committed by Blacks. Racism is a problem in the country but the cry of racism is used many times when it is not warranted. This may be one of those times.

Bears

Sports are not high on my list of priorities but that was not the case when I was younger. I was a big Bears fan and always enjoyed watching the Vikings lose. The news of last nights Viking game brought to mind the way the press handled the US exit from Afghanistan. The News about the game was not about the 37 to 10 score but the record breaking field goal by the Vikings. The news about Afghan was not the disastrous way it was handled but about the way the troops were flown to safety at the end. Even today the news out of Afghanistan is pretty much non existent. Some say the news would just be too painful.

LNG

The price of natural gas reached a high in 2006 and has been coming down since then. This past year the price has varied from $6 to $3 and is currently at $3.50 per 100 cu ft. The price in Europe is three to four times higher. Europe depends heavily on Russia and could lower the price if they purchased more from the US. Most US exports of natural gas (LNG) go to Asia but the US has ample supply and could compete with Russia for the European market. By the end of 2022 the US will have the world's largest LNG export capacity.

Coup

Recent news reports suggested by three retired generals warn of a possible coup in the 2024 election. While this is unlikely it does suggest a way this could happen, that rouge military leaders would ban together to take over. This is the way coups usually happen. Contrast that with the 2000 people waving flags and clubs who entered the Capitol building on January 6. The rioters entered the Capitol at 2:11 PM and the building was cleared at 6 PM. The senate was back in session at 9 PM. Last summer Biden mocked gun-rights advocates who say they need assault weapons to fight the government: 'You need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons'. While the January 6 riot was dangerous and must be investigated it is difficult to see how they could have carried out a coup.

MMT

The Fed has been creating money and using that to buy back bonds. They have been doing this since the economic crisis starting in 2008. When they buy bonds they put cash into the system and that ends up in the treasury department which in turn sends the money to the people in the form of various stimulus cash. These programs go by different names. To start there were three payments called quantitative easing. These were followed up by Emergency Relief packages, The American Rescue Plan, Covid Relief Bill, The Cares Act and Paycheck Protection program. OK, this sounds a little too good to be true: The Fed can simply keep printing money, buying government bonds, and the government can spend as much as it wants and protect the economy from damage done by the virus? No. Unless you believe in Modern Monetary Theory which says you can keep doing this without causing inflation as long as you don't have full employment. Currently 10 million people are not working so inflation should stay in check if this theory is right.

Safety and production

Fauci has come under attack for changing the isolation time from ten days to five. This is one of the few times he has done something that represents the real world. He has evaluated the risk/benefit ration and arrived at a compromise solution. As a health and safety expert he was put in the awkward position of having to decide based on economics. From his standpoint he was responsible for keeping Americans healthy and the economy was someone else concern but he got stuck with both. He now is starting to realize that and taking appropriate steps to deal with both sides of the issue. In manufacturing plants there is a Quality Control manager who wants every product to be perfect quality and a production manager who wants to produce the highest number of units. These two work together to reach and acceptable compromise. Fauci did not have that luxury.

Top stories 2021

Everyone gets a chance to lay out their opinions on what are the most important stories of the year and I want join the crowd and list the major stories in the US. 1. Inauguration of a new president. 2. January 6 riot at the Capitol. 3. The debacle leaving Afghanistan. 4. The mess at the border. 5. The treatment of police 6. The rise in serious crime especially murder. 7. The rise in the cost of most items. (inflation) 8. The protest that in many cities that overflowed from 2020 9. High profile trials. Kyle Rittenhouse, Jussie Smollett, Ghislaine Maxwill and Ahmaud Arbery. 10. The supply chain mess. 11. CRT and BLM. 12. Covid 13. Civilians in space. 14. First female VP. 15. Trump impeachment. This list is not in order of importance because that is too difficult but Covid is going away the number one story of the year.