Covid deaths

While one million Americans died from Covid the question come up at to how many would have died without the vaccine. To answer that look back to the 1918 pandemic. where about 675,000 died in the United States. The US population in 1918 was 100 million. Extrapolate that to today's 330 million and you find 2.2 million meaning that the vaccine might have saved 1.2 million American lives.

Oil production

There is an ongoing argument as to why we have a shortage of fuel oil and gasoline. One group says the government is interfering in the production and another says the oil companies are refusing to produce. The second argument doesn't hold water. They are saying that the oil companies now have huge profits so they don't want any more. They could produce and sell oil at $100 per barrel but they are satisfied with the status quo. The oil companies are currently producing 1.5 million barrels per day less than they were two years ago and at $100 per barrel they are passing up one billion dollars per week in profits and they are satisfied with this arrangement. NOT!

Nuclear power

Here is a quote from the president. “[When] it comes to the gas prices, we're going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it's over, we'll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,” Biden said He truly believes that wind and solar will replace fossil fuels. He never mentioned nuclear. There is hope since California's left wing governor has to decided not to close the last nuclear power plant in the state scheduled to close in 2025. While this is good to help prevent brown outs this plant should never have been built on the coast as it is subject to damage from a tsunami. Here is more hope. It took five decades, but the Democratic Party has finally changed its stance on nuclear energy. In its recently released party platform, the Democrats say they favor a “technology-neutral” approach that includes “all zero-carbon technologies, including hydroelectric power, geothermal, existing and advanced nuclear, and carbon capture and storage.”  That statement marks the first time since 1972 that the Democratic Party has said anything positive in its platform about nuclear energy. The change in policy is good — and long overdue — news for the American nuclear-energy sector and for everyone concerned about climate change

Polls

Polls show that 74% of Americans want to protect the right for citizens to own guns but 57% want stricter gun laws. 61% say abortion should be legal but only 35% say legal in the second trimester and 20% in the third trimester. People who are for these positions often quote the polls but only the first part. By doing this they lose credibility. Those who are pro gun and pro abortion do not want to give an inch for fear the other side will take a mile. The chances of getting rid of all abortions is about the same as getting rid of all guns. There are groups on the extremes of both of these issues but the majority of people are somewhere in the middle.

Strawberries

Illegal immigrants perform jobs that many say American workers will not do. If these jobs paid $36 per hour there would be no shortage of Americans to do this work. Business knows that if you can't get enough help you raise wages. Once companies increase wages they must increase cost. The average cost of strawberries is $3 per pound. The labor cost to harvest is 50 cents per pound. The minimum wage in California, where 90% of strawberries come from, is $12 per hour. To increase that to $36 per hour would mean increasing the cost of strawberries from $3 per pound $4 per pound. This is how the free market works. Americans eat 4 pounds of strawberries per year so their out of pocket cost to triple the wages would be $4 per year. When most people realize that picking strawberries means bending over in the hot sun all day they would be willing to spend and extra four dollars per year.

Fentanyl

The Mexican cartel receives raw materials from China to produce fentynal. They cook the material in an open pot out side. They have to be careful if the wind changes because the vapors are deadly. These cookers believe that if they drink beer it will protect them from the poison. Many in the area are self taught chemist working a low tech multi million dollar business. The process involves mixing and cooking three complex organic precursor chemicals. Chemist understand that when synthesizing, temperature control is essential but cooking over an open pot disregards this warning. The result is unwanted side products contaminate the mix. Each batch may have different side products. The government is so disconnected from this problem that the FDA is doing the following: Designation of Benzylfentanyl and 4-Anilinopiperidine, Precursor Chemicals Used in the Illicit Manufacture of Fentanyl, as List I Chemicals It is highly unlikely that this change in the law will have any effect on the Mexican cookers. No one knows how many are killed by the fentanyl or the contaminants. This is difficult to comprehend. Those who have watched the TV series Breaking Bad understand the difference between a trained chemist synthesizing and someone on the street.

Iraqi plot

One of the complaints about the Biden administration is that it is reactive instead of proactive. For example when the FDA shut down 40% of the US supply of baby food no one asked the question as to how this would be replaced. Instead months after the fact Biden said he was not a mind reader. Yesterday Chris Ray, the man in charge of the FBI, testified that a plot to assassinate former President Bush was uncovered and the plotter was an Iraqi citizen living in Ohio who planned to bring four accomplishes across the southern border to help him. Ray said that so far this year 157 known terrorist have been stopped at the border. Of course there is no way to determine how many were not stopped since there have been over 100,000 got aways this year. Will the administration take action only after some plot succeeds.

Lock doors

I have been waiting for someone to answer the question as to how the Texas killer got into the building and then into the classroom. I go to 14 different high schools and they all lock the doors when school starts and they have a person hired to watch one door and everyone must enter through that door. Once in class the room doors are kept locked. The latest report say the person carrying a rifle entered the school and then entered a classroom. Why weren't the door locked? As reports come out this question may be answered but as yet it has not.

Mass killings

Since 2009, there have been 274 mass shootings in the United States, resulting in 1536 people shot and killed. This equates to 125 killings per year. Every year 500 children under the age of 14 are killed by gunshot but these are spread around different cities and do not get the attention of a mass killing. Many of these children are killed in drive by shootings. It is somewhat like fentanyl deaths which totaled 70,000 last year. If one location would have recorded 20 deaths at one time the news would probably cover that. It is like a white man killing a Black man get lots of coverage but when 20 Black men are killed by 20 other Black men in one weekend in Chicago not much is reported. The news is very selective.

Georgia

People running for public office would be wise to limit their negativity toward their opposing candidate and not the voters. Yesterday a candidate for the governor of Georgia said Georgia was the worst state to live in. This is similar to Hilary Clinton's suggestion that certain voters are deplorable. When your animosity toward your opponent carries over to those who may vote for your opponent you have entered no man's land. If elected you will be governor or president for all the people not just those with whom you agree.

Trump election

After the 2016 election a majority of voters said they didn't believe the people accepted that Trump won. Polls show that 68% of voters say that Trump is not a legitimate president. That figure includes 69 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents and 65 percent of Democrats. Only four months into Trump’s presidency, Democrats have openly discussed impeachment. Three years after the election Hilary said, Hillary Clinton dismissed President Trump as an “illegitimate president” and suggested that “he knows” that he stole the 2016 presidential election in a CBS News interview to be aired Sunday. These thoughts were echoed by many including former President Carter and congressman John Lewis. This disbelief was fostered by the Trump/Russia collusion claim which was later debunked after a special counsel investigation.

Hunter hard drive

When the story about the Hunter Biden laptop came out it was called disinformation and the press refused to cover it. Over the next year drips and drabs of info came out which put Hunter, who is a drug addict, is a bad light. Finally the Washington Post and the NY Times declared the laptop was legitimate and this opened the door to additional investigation which indicated that Hunter was involved in some unscrupulous activities in China and Ukraine. It appeared that even President Biden may have some part in his sons business, which he denied. There is a rumor that the AG in Delaware is coming out with an indictment and this has caused the media to decide to throw Hunter under the bus to protect Joe. Here is a report from NBC news today. From 2013 through 2018 Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with a Ukrainian firm accused of bribery and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud, according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden’s hard drive. If Hunter is convicted of some crime he will be forced to fall on his sword to protect Joe. If that happens odds are he will make a deal to pay a fine and perform public service to avoid jail time. Some investigators will continue their search and a republican controlled house may look into any connections between Hunter and Joe.

Press coverage

Trump's high point in ratings was 49% just before the pandemic hit and then it dropped to 34%. At Trump's high the economy was booming. Lowest unemployment in history including minorities and women, inflation less than two percent, low crime, first real wage increases in 40 years, a secure border and exporting oil and gas. Biden started out at 57% and has fallen to 39%. Even though the economy was doing well the press coverage of Trump was 90% negative, while the first year of the Biden administration’s relationship with the U.S. press has been an almost complete reversal of the Trump administration.  Some say this is because Trump was hostile toward the press calling them fake news but is the news supposed to be dependent on how nice the president is.

Oil is oil

During the campaign Biden called for zero carbon emissions by 2050. His plan is to to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar. His administration has taken steps to achieve that objective but it has led to a shortage of oil and gas production. They are now looking to buy oil from Venezuela, a place where poor management allows leaking of oil throughout the process and the oil is high in contaminants. HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. officials have demanded Venezuela supply at least a portion of oil exports to the United States as part of any agreement to ease oil trading sanctions on the OPEC member nation, two people close to the matter said. Next on the agenda is to look to Iran. We may be about to see a surge in oil from Iran. That’s the hope, at least, surrounding talks in Vienna aiming to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. This is problematic on two fronts. First burning oil produces CO2 no matter the source and second moving to wind and solar creates new environmental hazards.

China Biden

The argument that Biden was indebted to China did not make sense as long as the kept the Trump import taxes on their products but now that may change. Biden is considering dropping those taxes in order to lower prices to fight inflation. Recall that when the Covid first came out it was in Wuhan, China and while how it originated is still undecided the way China reacted was suspect. They closed down travel from Wuhan to other Chinese cites but allowed people to travel around the world taking the virus with them. Meanwhile China is producing the starting chemicals for fentanyl and sending those to the Mexican cartels where they synthesize fentanyl and send it across the border to kill Americans. Today Biden showed leadership and decisiveness when asked would the US use military force to protect Taiwan and he answered directly, short and sweet by saying, yes. This is more proof that China does not have any dirt on Biden.

Baby food

Complaints about the shortage of baby food started coming in last summer as mothers found empty shelves. The supply was disrupted by the pandemic. People recognizing the possible shortage began to stock pile. Then in February the Abbott plant that produced 40% of the domestic supply was shut down but no one bothered to ask where will the replacements come from. Then on May 13 Biden defended the White House's response saying they acted as soon as they became aware of the problem. Then he took steps to reduce red tape, speed formula production, changed import laws, invoked the Defense Production Act and launched Operation Fly Formula. His excuse for not acting sooner was that he was not a mind reader. Someone in the White House has to be close enough to the people to see a problem when mothers across the country knew about it. If anyone was able to shut off 40% of any commodity they would know that it would result in a shortage. Wake up!

Border

As the situation at the border worsens many question if the government wants to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. Besides the criminals that come across there is the problem of safety. All immigrant girls over the age of 10 coming through the southern U.S. border receive a pregnancy test. Nearly 70 percent of migrants and refugees entering Mexico reported being victims of violence while making the journey, CNN reports, and nearly one-third of women reported being sexually abused. Add to that the the increase in illegal drug including fentanyl which mostly comes from China and some say this is an undeclared war on the US

Hilary email

When Hilary Clinton was in office, she had her own server which afforded her additional opportunities to block government or private subpoenas. Contrary to widespread reports, federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas in connection with an investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server, an FBI official indicated in a court filing this week. Clinton's office disclosed on March 10, 2015, that she gave the State Department 30,490 work-related emails on Dec. 5, 2014 and that she kept 31,000 that she deemed personal. “We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work-related emails and deliver them to the State Department,” Clinton said at a press conference that day. “At the end, I chose not to keep my private personal emails.” She then used something called bleach-bit to delete them. When the government subpoenas your emails you cannot go through them and decide what you should send. If that were the case there would be no reason to subpoena.

LA buses

Here is an example of how the government is not looking at all the ways to lower CO2. Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the Environmental Protection Agency's $500 million Clean School Bus rebate program for schools to replace old diesel buses with electric and low-emission ones during a visit to a Virginia school Friday, the White House said in a news release. Since 2005 LA buses have been running on natural gas. With more than a million riders each day counting on their buses being on time, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) needs a clean, cost-efficient, reliable fuel supply. That's why its entire fleet of more than 2,250 buses runs on compressed natural gas (CNG). By switching to CNG, Metro has reduced cancer-causing particulates from the bus fleet by 98 percent, carbon monoxide by 80 percent and greenhouse gases by about 150 tons per day, pointing out that Metro is seeing fuel cost savings of approximately $60 million to $70 million each year.

Old oil wells

As the average person looks at oil companies they are confused. Experts say that these companies are using their profits to increase dividends instead of production. Two years ago they were producing 13 million barrels per day and now they are down to 11.5 million. They could go back to 13 without investing in new wells so why don't they. At $100 per barrel this would add $150 million dollars per day to their bottom line and then they could pay even more dividends. It may take new investment to drill new wells but not to open up the wells that were shut down over the past two years.

Tesla's out

Senator Schumer warned not to attack the Justice Department or they will come after you showing the power that the bureaucrats have. Let Elon Musk be forewarned. Elon Musk is finding out how true that is. Tesla was removed from the S&P 500 because Tesla's lack of a low-carbon strategy and codes of business conduct. Tesla was voted out of the top ten best environmental companies but Exon was in. How Does Tesla Get A Worse ESG, (Environmental, Social, and Governance) score than 2 oil companies. The big hero of the environmentalist for his electric cars is now on their out list.

Manchin

For all of the people out there who are concerned about inflation, please take a moment to write a thank you not to Senator Joe Manchin. He single handedly stop additional trillions from being created by the Fed. Otherwise inflation would be much worse.

Abortion protest

The recent controversy about teaching children about transsexual matters was challenged by saying this was not the responsibility of the teacher. The last few days students have walked out of various high schools around the country to protest as pro choice advocates. Some question if the teachers influenced the students in any way and if so this adds credence to the argument that teachers should not be offering advice on such personal matters. In heath class teachers who are properly trained can speak of abortion but hopefully in an unbiased manner. They show a live birth in that class but not a live abortion. When the students see the birth the respond by saying ugh. If they saw a live abortion they would probable get sick especially if it were late term.

Replacement

The charge of racism has lost its sting from overuse and those that promoted it have come up with a replacement called appropriately enough, the great replacement. It is a theory that says that white people are fearful of be replaced by non-white people. This leads to the extreme view that all White people are racist or the lesser version that White male Christians are racist. While there are certainly racist of various types in the country there is little to prove that it represents large numbers of people. Most people say that racism is a serious problem but that only a few people are racist. Making it more difficult to determine who is racist is the tendency not to express racist views.

Pronouns by gender

A Middle School in Wisconsin has charged three students with sexual harassment for not using the proper pronoun. Another student wanted to be called," they" as opposed to she. Now the parents will have to hire a lawyer and this will probably be thrown out of court but the threat to other parents remains. Worse yet is that this "they" person will be treated differently because many students will not know how to act. Students should be dissuaded from commenting on a persons choice of gender but asking them to change pronouns can be a little too much. When someone asks where she is and she is walking down the hallway should the answer be, There they is. This happens in the German language where gender is not necessarily associated with sex. For example the word street in German is feminine so if the ball rolls out into the street you would say, the ball rolled out into her. In English the grammar rules require pronouns be assigned by gender.

Baby food shortage

Why are we out of baby food. In February the FDA shut down an Abbott plant that produces 40% of the baby food for the country and that was that. They should have immediately started the process of importing baby food from other countries. Here is a report from yesterday. FDA moving to allow baby formulas intended for other countries to be used in US. A case of too little too late. The administration is reactive instead of proactive but the press will not push the point. Biden says he wish he was a mind reader.

Sussman trial

I once attended a lecture by famous lawyer F. Lee Bailey and he closed by saying, just remember when you go to court whether you are innocent or guilty has nothing to do with the verdict. The judge in the Michael Flynn case gave the prosecutor wide open powers but the judge in the Sussman case which is starting today has told Durham he must limit the evidence it plans to use to show any connection with the Clinton campaign. Here is what Politico thought was going to happen at the trial. A looming legal battle could reveal new details about the decision by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to commission a research project that produced a controversial dossier on Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia This is what Bailey was referring to.

Gas prices

Democrats tore into oil company executives for high gasoline prices at a hearing Wednesday The big oil companies own fewer than 5 of the 145,000 gas stations in the US and they are tying to unload those. Retail selling at gas stations in not profitable and those stations make their money by selling other products. The big money maker for oil is to take oil out of the ground at an average cost of $36 per barrel and sell it for $100. The price of oil is set on the world market based mostly on supply and demand. The US could lower gas prices by increasing supply.

Bail

The concept of bail is in the news because it is in the constitution and considered unfair toward poor people. President Biden confirmed his belief that bail is unfair because the rich can get out of jail since they have money but a poor person remains in jail until the trial. The bail is returned when the person shows up for trial. I have a solution to this problem that will satisfy both sides. Set the bail at the appropriate amount but it is not to be paid up front but only if the person fails to appear at the appointed time. Jim is arrested for robbery and is released on his promise that he will show up for trial. The understanding is that if he fails to show he will have to pay the bail. If he fails to show an arrest warrant is issued and when he is caught he will have to pay the bond. This eliminates the revolving door policy of having a criminal arrested and let go only to be arrested again and let go and so on. A small percent of criminals commit most of the crimes and keeping these repeat offenders in prison will significantly reduce crime

Oil free

The chances of an oil free world are slim to none. The United States with 1.8% of the worlds reserves may one day get by with out oil especially if they invest in nuclear. The US has 40 billion barrels of reserves against the rest of the world with just under 2000 billion. The big oil producers in the Middle East rely almost exclusively on their oil exports and will doing so for many years. It is up to western countries to develop nuclear power to solve the problem of climate change. It is only when the industrialized nations realize that nuclear is the future that the world will move away from oil.

Black murders

Here is the news from all the major networks. At least one person is dead and four are critically injured after a shooting Sunday at a church in Laguna Woods, California, according to the sheriff’s department. Here is the news from no networks. CHICAGO -- At least 33 people have been shot, five fatally, in weekend violence across Chicago, police said. Chicago violence is so common place it is no longer newsworthy. Some say the reason is that it is Blacks shooting Blacks as if that should make a difference. Even though homicide is the biggest killer of young Black men, no one seems to care. Some have called this the civil rights movement of our time.

Wage price inflation

We are in an inflationary period and the most common type of inflation is called wage/price inflation. The government, once again, is responding instead of anticipation. Now they are faced with a solution that may be worse than the problem, at least for the short term. The Fed must raise interest rates to slow the economy which will raise the cost of things like mortgage and auto loans. As wages increase along with everything else those who are not working will face higher prices without the benefit of higher wages and this should encourage them to rejoin the workforce. Having more people working will increase productivity and that will fight inflation because it will increase supply. The government should encourage private business to increase production starting with oil and gas. This will lower the cost of home heating and more importantly the cost of transportation which effects all products.

Baby food

There has always been two things that would get voters upset to the point where they were willing to take action and those were not plowing the roads in a timely manner and high gas prices since on every corner there was a big sign with the price. I am now ready to add a third to that list and this is running out of baby formula. The late Charles Krauthammer, in responding to the governments plan to shut down health plans that did not offer contraceptives, said what ever you do, do not attack the Little Sisters of the Poor. A similar warning can be, do not run out of baby food.

Covid deaths

At the Oct. 22, 2020, debate against then-President Donald Trump, Joe Biden said anyone who is responsible for 220,000 deaths from COVID should not be president. Now, here it is December 2021 and these 220,000 deaths have increased to 813,000. More have died since Biden took office and he had the vaccine. Mask wearing turned into a political thing and caused no end of trouble. One wonders how the mask idea would have fared, if Trump in March of 2020, had said there will be a mask mandate and everyone must wear a mask at all times.

Unforced errors

In tennis they are called unforced errors and in government the name is self inflicted wounds and Biden has had his fare share. It started during the campaign when he failed to come out against the summer rioters in 2020. He followed this with his admitted stand against fossil fuels. Next came his silence on the defund the police movement as crime increased in most major cities. Once elected he botched the departure from Afghanistan by pulling troops before securing the people and equipment. Then came the loss of control at the border as the number of illegals swelled bringing an increase in drugs and criminals. More recently he sided with the school board against the parents and with Disney against teaching first graders about sex changing. He was slow to send arms to Ukraine for fear of upsetting Putin. The shortage of baby food has been in the news for months and just now the administration is waking up to the problem. The result is that his approval has gone from 57% to 38% and more importantly 79% of the people feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Twitter

Twitter relies on the Amazon cloud and could be put out of business if Amazon chose. About a year ago a company called Parlor started up to compete against Twitter but Amazon shut them down saying they had too much disinformation. A new cloud company called Rumble is now in service and Trump's new site is on Rumble so Amazon cannot shut it down. If Musk buys Twitter, Amazon could shut it down. If that happened Musk could move Twitter to Rumble. Rumble is worth $500 million so Musk could buy that.

Money on trees

When the government announces that it will send money to Ukraine or spend money on Covid control most Americans say those are good ideas. That is easy because it feels like someone else is paying. If there are 150 million Americans working then each $10 billion dollars spent means $66 out of pocket. So if we spend $44 billion on Ukraine and $22 billion on Covid that would be $435 from each working person. If each person was required to write a check for that amount there would be more questions asked as to how this money was to be used and who will be checking to make sure it was used efficiently. The problem is that in too many cases the money is just created out of nothing by the Fed. When President Biden leaned forward and whispered, "I just gave you $1.9 trillion dollars" that money just came from no where so no one cared. Its as if we live in the fantasy world where money grows on trees.

Coal v natural gas

Carbon dioxide emissions are the best way to measure a countries climate change policies and the US is doing a great job. US CO2 emissions are at the lowest level since 1985 even though the population has increased by 100 million since then. The 40% decline in U.S. coal-fired power generation over the last decade accounted for 75% of the total reduction in CO2 emissions. The US has only 240 coal-fired plants left with more being closed each year while there are 8,500 in the world with 1,600 new plants currently under construction. The concern about climate change in the US today is more about politics than climate. The way to help the world to fight climate change is to produced natural gas and ship it to countries around the world so that they can replace their coal plants with natural gas.

Get out of the way

Within his first week in office, President Biden signed an executive order temporarily suspending new oil and gas leases on federal lands. This kind of thing is still going on. The Biden administration canceled one of the most high-profile oil and gas lease sales pending before the Department of the Interior yesterday May 10th. The DOI halted the potential to drill for oil in over 1 million acres in Alaska's Cook Inlet, along with two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. Major investment companies are shying away from energy investments as they await what will happen next. The government may not have a way to lower the gas prices but they can quit interfering. They need to adhere to the old maxim, lead, follow or get out of the way.

End of far left

Things can change between now and November but right now it appears that the folks at MSNBC will get their wish and they will have Trump to kick around for the two years during the campaign followed up by four years in the oval office. They will spend all of their time talking about Trumps personality flaws and never mention the lowest unemployment in history including women and minorities, a secure border, inflation less than 2%, being a net exporter of energy, low crime and no war. They will follow Biden's lead saying everything that went wrong was caused by Putin, Covid and MAGA republicans. But voters will only be looking at food cost, utility cost and the big sign at the gas station. Voters will be watching millions of illegals pour across the border bringing with them poison drugs and criminals. They will be worried about crime in their neighborhood and strange teachings in their schools. Unless something totally unexpected happens this will be the end of the far left ideas on social change.

Equal law

No man is above the law. We are a country of laws. These are common phrases heard on a regular basis. There is a federal law against using pot but a number of states have legalized the use. Many coming across the southern border illegally but the federal government seems disinterested. Now people are protesting outside the homes of judges and once again the feds are quiet. We will have to change our sayings to some men are above the law and we are a country of some laws. Its much like BLM when certain lives are involved but not others. Its like Orwell said about socialism. Everyone is equal but some are more equal.

Fertilizer

News reports a fertilizer shortage since the Ukraine War started but in fact Ukraine is a minor producer of the ammonia that most use as fertilizer. Most ammonia is produced by way of the Haber process. More important but not discussed is the fact that the hydrogen used in the Haber process comes from natural gas and the process produces 600 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. This is more CO2 than 200 million cars. News people seem uninterested in looking into chemical processes to determine the total impact of any product. This is particularly evident in their inability to fully understand the wind and solar business. Why don't the scientist step up and help these people understand the world of chemistry.

Wheat

Today Biden gave a speech in Illinois taiking about the importance of food production in Ukraine. He said Ukraine was the world largest wheat producer. In fact they are eighth. It took only a few seconds to check this out. Who is previewing the speeches that the president gives. Here are the 10 countries with the most wheat production: China (134,254,710 tons) India (107,590,000 tons) Russia (85,896,326 tons) United States (49,690,680 tons) Canada (35,183,000 tons) France (30,144,110 tons) Pakistan (25,247,511 tons) Ukraine (24,912,350 tons)

Truth news

Fox news is all in a dither over the new Disinformation Governance Board suggested by Home Security and in particular Nina Jankowitz the lady who is to head up the new department. They presented all sorts of evidence showing that she has a strong bias against Trump having published many of the stories about Trump that turned out to be untrue. The way much of the news is reported today she may seem like the ideal candidate.

Government secrecy

At 91, Daniel Ellsberg is certain of many things. One of them is that unofficial leaks of government documents are fundamental to keeping a check on the most powerful operators of our society. For all you youngsters Ellsberg is the guy who in 1971 released secret information about Viet Nam which showed how the government lied. In 2006 Julian Assange did something similar and in my opinion this was OK. I believe the more open government is the better things are. If they know that things will be made public they will be on their good behavior. The same goes for the Supreme Court. Government official often give the impression that they are mature enough to understand the downside of issues but the rest of us are not. They know what's best. Bah humbug!

Reputation laundering

Here's the latest hot news from CNN.‘It’s shameful’: Russian-linked billionaires have given enormous sums of money to the West’s leading educational and cultural institutions. And here is the punch line. They call this reputation laundering. What we call it today is," virtue signaling". Its all about public relations or more specially,"image building".

Energy supply

What happens to government when the solution to a problem conflicts with ideology. This is going on right now. One of the main reasons for current inflation is the cost of transportation which effects everything the consumer buys. The administration is trying to rely on the Fed to tame inflation but as they buy back bonds they are adding more money to the system and when they raise interest rates they increase the cost of items that consumers purchase on credit, things like the credit card debt, cars and mortgages. The answer is to have the government go to the energy companies and offer them incentives to increase production. Increasing the supply of oil and gas will bring down the price. The concern about climate change will have to take a temporary back seat position.

bring jobs home

The story of Bethlehem Steel is representative of what happened to the American manufacturing base and illustrates the difference between free open trade and unfair competition. In its hay day Bethlehem Steel employed 30,000 people with skilled high paying jobs with good benefits. The Chinese first hurt the world steel market by low wages with no benefits but soon added government subsidies. China followed that same pattern with multiple products and in time sucked the jobs away from the west. In the beginning it was a win-win for the US. High corporate profits and low cost consumer items. Over the next 30 years this policy moved one billion people around the world out of poverty. It is now time to reverse policies and bring jobs back home. Cut China lose to defend themselves in the market. Both Trump and Biden realized this and both tried to make changes. Trump put import taxes on China and Biden has kept them. This is a good start but much more is needed. When American companies find out they can compete by making products at home they will take the steps to do so. It reduces dependence on foreign countries and greatly simplifies the supply chain. The US could start an education program preparing citizens for higher prices but explaining it will mean higher wages, that it will keep us from depending on China for important products like pharmaceuticals and baby formula.

Lightfoot

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot faced a wave of criticism after tweeting a 'call to arms' for the LGBTQ community who she claimed the Supreme Court would target next if they overturn Roe V. Wade. 'We will not surrender our rights without a fight—a fight to victory,' the city's first openly gay, black female mayor wrote What does a call to arms mean? According to the dictionary it means, a summons to engage in active hostilities. I can only hope she means something else and these was a bad choice of words. Chicago already has enough arms.

Abortion

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is accused of promoting eugenics. Sanger reportedly spoke at eugenics conferences. She also talked about birth control being used to facilitate "the process of weeding out the unfit [and] of preventing the birth of defectives." She once wrote that "consequences of breeding from stock lacking human vitality always will give us social problems and perpetuate institutions of charity and crime." Today many feel that these ideas are out molded and no longer reflect the ideals of the organization but the fact remains that a disproportionate number of Black women get abortions. Women of color get about 70% of abortions and much of this is economic along with race. Low income women have disproportionately more abortions even though contraceptives are available at little or no cost to low income groups. Studies show that low income men of color demonstrate less responsibility in this area.

Abortion

Trying to use some common sense when it comes to the abortion issue is difficult. Years ago a neighbor lady invited me to a lecture on abortion put on by a group of pro-life people. Afterward I wrote to her and explained that in the future the problem would be resolved by taking a pill to abort. It appears that time has come. More than half of all abortions are done by taking medication. This is prescribed by the doctor and by law must remain private. As more and more states restrict abortion procedures more women will turn to medication. This pill works up to 11 weeks and 90% of abortions occur before that time. The remaining ten percent will still be a problem but most American support a 15 week ban. People may be closer to a solution than they realize.

Farm land

The US Department of Agriculture has a program called Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) where farmers are paid to set aside land meaning they will not plant. In 2021, CRP is capped at 25 million acres, and currently 20.8 million acres are enrolled. Furthermore, the cap will gradually increase to 27 million acres by 2023. Ukraine has 100 million acres of farm land so the US could make up 25% of that just by opening up the set aside land. There is also five million acres of less productive land in the SHIPP program that could be opened up to planting. Since the experts predict a severe food shortage this could be a matter of life and death.

Lemonade

President Biden has found a way to make lemonade out of lemons. He tried desperately to pass Build Back Better, a bill which would have added five trillion to the deficit, but is was shot down. Now he is saying that his policies are bringing down the national debt. Smooth move.

America is great

On September 17, 2017 Biden said “We are by far the greatest, powerful, decent nation in the world. Ask yourself this rhetorical question: Do you think there’s any nation in the world — any leader — who would trade places with any place but us? Three years later Biden said the US suffers from systemic racism and white supremacy. What America is all about is best illustrated by a TV commercial for a on line university. It is a computer generated young single mom in her twenties who is working in a factory. She has two small children to care for while she goes to on line college studying late into the night and it closes with her working as a computer engineer. Millions around the world want to come here because here you have the opportunity to reach your potential. Just look around and you will see millions of people who have achieved the American dream and they did it with hard work and perseverance just like the young lady in the commercial.

Afghan

Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders have issued an order that all Afghan women should wear the all-covering burqa in public. The decree added that if women had no important work outside it was better for them to stay at home The Taliban previously decided against reopening schools to girls above the age of 12 In an interview with The Associated Press, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi dismissed outrage over the Taliban’s executions in the past. The government will continue the Islamic laws on executions and amputations of hands. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.” Summary killings and enforced disappearances have taken place.

Mother

Now that the courts have decided that a person is the gender they think they are as opposed to their biological gender a number of conundrums have surfaced. The first was trying to decide which bathroom to use. One involves the word woman. If you are a biological woman who believes you are a man and you get pregnant in order to avoid statements such as men having babies the name mother has been removed from the vernacular. To adjust for this anomaly women are now called birthing persons. The White House's 2022 fiscal year budget replaced the word, 'mother" with birthing people in a section about public health. Can we now expect someone in the press to refer to tomorrow as Happy Birthing People's day?

Estate tax

When ever the national debt increases like it has the past few years some politicians cry out that we are passing this, currently $30 trillion, onto out grandchildren. While this is true they fail to mention that the baby boomers, those people born between 1946 and 1964, will pass on $70 trillion to their heirs. The downside is that most of this will be in the top 20% which will add to the chasm between rich and poor. This is the argument for estate taxes.

Forgiveness

One of the basics of parenting is letting children know that no matter what they do or say they will always be loved. This is a helpful idea to carry over to all people. When a person behaves differently and in a manner that makes you uncomfortable be ready to voice your concern but do so in a way that does not denigrate the person but only the action. This can be a minor thing like how they vote or something more serious like life style. If your friend or relative is gay let them know that this is difficult for you to understand but you they remain your friend. If your friend decides to get an abortion and you believe that life begins at conception condemn the act but console the person. If someones religion is different than yours point out why you believe the way you do but do not put their religion down. The basic rule is to treat people with dignity and respect. Learn to separate the person from the deed and then go one step further and trade grievances and resentments for forgiveness. A recent news story told of a woman who visited the convicted killer of her son and offered her forgiveness and she could be a roll model for others. Most of the strife we have in the world today centers around attacking the person instead of the action.

Fighting inflation

For the past 15 years the Fed has held interest rates at one percent or lower. During this time the Fed conducted a policy of quantitative easing which means buying assets like bonds to put money into the economy. This was attempt to hold up the economy and prevent a slide into a recession. This continued to add to the money supply which has grown from one trillion in 2008 to 21 trillion today having increased 5 trillion just the last year. Now with all of these dollars chasing too few goods the result is inflation. To get inflation under control, the President called on companies to lower their costs and not their wages. He asked the car and tech industries to bring their supply chains back home and make both vehicles and semiconductors on US soil.“Instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America,” he said. Companies are always trying to lower cost but encouraging them to bring home manufacturing is a good start. Add to that expanding fossil fuel production will help lower transportation cost which will lower the cost of all items including gasoline. Stop the Fed from buying bonds and start selling bonds to reduce the money supply. Encourage more people to join the work force. The labor participation rate at 62.2% is still below the pre-pandemic 63.4%. Millions are coming back to work but still leaving millions on the sideline. This is important because productivity fights inflation.

What if

When I used to encourage people to set up a living trust they would play the what if game. They would come up with all sorts of possible scenarios and ask, what if. This allowed them to postpone doing anything. This is playing out now in two areas. The first is if we allow abortions what if gay marriage is made illegal or what if trans children are sent to separate classrooms. More recently the homes of Supreme Court Justices are targeted and people are saying what if they ban mixed marriage and pass laws to hurt gays. They take an existing controversy and exaggerate it using the what if game. This doesn't help to understand the situation.

Profiling

The dilemma of profiling is an ongoing problem. The IRS uses it on a regular basis in determining who should be audited and it is an accepted practice. If a mayor finds out that 50% of the crime is occurring in 25% of the city and sends in extra police to that area and that results in a disproportional number of arrest he is open to criticism. This is a type of profiling. Assume a city is plagued with a drug problem and the police chief decides to do something about it. He doesn't have unlimited resource but he doesn't want to use profiling. He decides he will randomly stop traffic and check for drugs. He cannot stop all cars and that would be too disruptive. He tells his deputy to go down the road and select every fifth car and notify him as to which car to stop. The deputy see five cars go by. The first is a Volkswagon with two nuns, the second is Lincoln town car with Grandma and Grandpa, the third is Van with a family, the forth is a sedan with a priest and the fifth is a Black guy wearing a gold chain driving and Mercedes. Now you are the deputy. What do you do. While this seems an absurd example this very thing happens at airport where the TSA is told to check every fifth person and there are examples of checking elderly women in wheel chairs. Suppose you were sent to Heathrow Airport in London to check for possible terrorist. As the people come off the planes would you concentrate on the blond females from Scandinavia or the brown skinned males from the Middle East. Stop and frisk is a very controversial example. Statistics show that if you stop Black males rather than random stops you will find many more weapons per given number of stops. Should you sacrifice efficiency to avoid profiling.

The Five

There is a popular program on Fox News called, "The Five". I started watching it ten years ago when it first began. They have five people who sit around and discuss current affairs. They are popular because of the mix and balance in the group. One member is a comedian at heart and provide levity when needed. Another is a judge who adds a legal slant. The third is a liberal. The forth a conservative and the fifth is a common sense person who adds stability to the group. It is a winning combination because recently it has become the most watched show on cable news and it is on at 4 in the afternoon out performing the prime time shows.

Home prices

Home prices are rising rapidly. In just the past two years home equity has increased $6 trillion dollars. Home values have increased by 30% over the past two years. The widely followed S&P CoreLogic 20-City Home Price Index was up 19.1% compared with January of last year — a blistering pace, especially considering that the growth was on top of the 11%-plus growth rate reported for January 2021. The shortage of houses is adding to the problem as will the Fed raising interest rates. Back in the early 2000's some people would forgo their 401K contributions to save money for a down payment on a house. Home values were increasing faster than salaries and each year it became more difficult to buy. This all ended in 2006 when loans could be obtained with no money down and no income requirement called NINA (no income, no assets) loans. No discrimination here. Everyone qualified. This of course all came tumbling down when the housing market collapsed with the first downturn in the economy and the poor especially Blacks suffered the biggest loses. This is less likely in today's market because banks now require some financial stability before offering a loan, the way things were before 2000.

Musk twitter

Elon Musk the crazy genius has lined up another big cash profit bonanza for himself. He invested $12.5 billion of his own money taking a loan against his Tesla stock which means he is using OPM's, other peoples money. When the company goes public in three years his share of the IPO will probably bring in double of what he invested since he will own one forth of the stock.

Biden and policy

Here is a quote from Biden yesterday, "MAGA crowd" is "the most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history." This goes along with his previous statement, Biden Says White Supremacists Have Replaced Jihadists as ‘Most Lethal Terrorist Threat’ to U.S. This is one way to avoid talking about crime, inflation and the border. This is much like calling the Trump supporters deplorables. It is as if there were something evil about these people but does the general public feel that way. Instead of talking policy he talks personality.

Abortion polling can be tricky and the results can be deceiving if not all the data is presented. For example polls show that 63% of people agree with Roe v Wade that abortions should be legal. If the question is refined some rather interesting results appear.  The further into the pregnancy, with AP/NORC finding 61% believe abortion should be legal during the first trimester, but only 34% in the second trimester and 19% in the third. Advances in medicine have made the subject of abortion more complicated. Various characteristics of the fetus can be determined and should these be used to decide on abortion. Some of these can be quite serious and others totally trivial.

Poetic justice

The latest from Elon Musk about Twitter. He plans to buy it outright but in three years to go public. While the new platform will remain free to public uses, he plans to charge of fee for government and business users. Charging the government is a perfect example of poetic justice or as Jackie Gleason would say, how sweet it is. For all you people under 60 google it.

German coal

Germany in their rush to go green shut down their coal plants and their nuclear plants. Now that the supply of oil and natural gas from Russia is in jeopardy they are asking the coal business to be on standby in case they have to go back to coal power plants. Germany's former Chancellor Angala Merkel decided that nuclear was not acceptable. Did she base that on science or just her personal opinion. Did the German people understand nuclear.

Abortion

The abortion issue is a good example to show why the founders allowed two senators per state. They didn't want the high population states to run rough shod over the smaller states. States like Arkansas, Iowa, Alabama and Mississippi average 5 abortions per 1,000 women of child bearing age whereas states like New York, Illinois and Florida average 18. In NY City 41% of all pregnancies end in abortions and chemical abortions account for more than half. The new ruling by the Supreme Court if approved will allow individual states to determine their own abortion rules and these rules will be determined by the people who live in those states. Its back to the old states rights argument. According to The Court the Roe decision was flawed because it did not have its roots in the constitution such as free speech in the first amendment and gun ownership in the second.

Abortion

Polls show that 63% of Americans favor abortion but that includes some who limit it to first trimester only. The problem is that it is varies widely across the various states. For example the states that most favor abortion are mostly large democratic states like New York, Massachusetts, California and the states that least favor abortion are more conservative and rural, states like Mississippi, Indiana and Louisiana. With the proposed change from the leak each state will be able to determine how abortion should be treated. Best guess is that some will ban abortion, some will set a time for legal abortions and others will allow all abortions.

Roe

A leak from the Supreme Court indicated that Roe v Wade may be sent back to the states and while this in and of itself is a controversial decision and can be changed after further discussion, the problem at this time is the leak. The court relies on confidentiality to properly discuss issues. According to the news this is the first time in history such a leak has occurred. An interesting side story to this is how Roe has hurt the democratic party. Since Roe was enacted in 1973 more than 20 million Black women have chosen abortion. If these babies had lived they would have increased to 40 million additional Black citizens which would have doubled the Black population in this country and since Blacks vote over 90% democrat there would have been no republicans elected president and far fewer republicans to congress. While Blacks represent 13% of the population they have 38% of the abortions.

Russian gas

Here is a statement from the European Union. "We have prepared ourselves to be less dependent on Russian energy imports," Lindner said. "We can reduce the imports, starting with coal, then oil. It will take more time to be independent from Russian natural gas imports, but we will continue so in the end we will be completely independent from Russia." Attention USA. Max out production of oil and natural gas. Accelerate the construction of LNG shipping facilities and ramp up fracking.

Import tax on China

The government is finally showing some concern about our dependence on China but they are going about it in the wrong way. Congress passed a $350 billion dollar corporate welfare bill designed to give money to private companies to help them compete with imports from China. This will add to the inflation while handing out checks to big companies. A better way would be to place import taxes on goods from China causing the cost of these items to become non competitive with US industries. Consumer prices would rise but that is the price to pay for having goods made in America. Big companies should be aware that if the government is going to give them money they will demand some control over how it is spent. For those who favor free trade it is not free when the Chinese government subsidizes their industries so they can sell products at a price below the cost of production.

Transgender

Transgender is term for anyone whose gender does not align with their sex assigned at birth. Cisgender means not transgender. Early signs are psychological and a marked incongruence between their gender and their assigned gender at birth lasting at least 6 months. Things like a girl trying to prevent breast development. Doctors and parents are encouraged to take a gender-affirming approach. Some children can change their name say from Mary to John or change clothes or hair style. Hormone treatments research is still ongoing. Some people don't realize they are transgender until they reach puberty or later in adulthood. Medical guidelines do not recommend genital gender-affirming surgeries before age 18. Endocrine Society’s 2017 guidelines mentioned the need for more research on the effects of the prolonged delay of puberty in adolescents.

Independent counsel

Some people are suggesting the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the Hunter Biden laptop with the idea that Attorney General Eric Garland cannot investigate without bias. What they fail to understand is that since 1999 the independent counsel law changed and any appointment would now report to the AG. This was changed by congress after the Bill Clinton fiasco

Do BLM

The phrase Black Lives Matter causes a great deal of misunderstanding since it refers to only certain Black lives. If a Black man is shot by a police officer then it is a big news story. This happened 139 times last year and the majority of these were killed in the process of committing a crime. If 9,000 Black men are murdered by other Black men it is not big news story. When there are 400,000 Black abortions each year it is not a big news stories. This is why Black deaths pose a conundrum to many.

Portland

Portland, OR has become the poster boy picture for how not to deal with crime. The Portland Police Bureau currently deploys fewer sworn officers — 789 — than at any point in the past in 30 years, according to the bureau and an analysis of records by The Oregonian/OregonLive, even though the city added more than 165,000 new residents over that period. In 2021, Portland recorded 90 homicides amid a surge in gun violence, shattering the city’s previous high of 66 set more than three decades ago. In November, 2021, Portland was among major cities that added funds to their police department. City Council unanimously passed a fall budget bump that included increasing the $230 million police budget by an additional $5.2 million. The city fathers can say oops we made a mistake and must build up the police department but in the process many died. Here is something that I wrote in April of 2021 Most Americans find it hard to believe that 90% of police officers in England are unarmed. The Mayor of Portland has a plan to replace police with unarmed park rangers. This will be interesting to watch and may result in a whole new way of serve and protect. On the other hand it may result in more crime.

BLM

Black Lives Matter is going down the path that Occupy Wall Street traveled. BLM started out with good intentions as its goal was to bring the mistreatment of Blacks by police, to the attention of the public. Corporations who follow the philosophy of doing well while doing good gladly joined the group and provided financial support. Some say that well meaning goal has been overtaken by virtue signaling and fear of reprisals but then things turned violent and the public begin to lose faith in the whole idea. When it was revealed that the leadership was using the money for personal use and that they failed to file the proper IRS forms the whole program was in jeopardy. It is also being marginalized by the new idea of replacing the charge of racism, which has lost its sting by overuse, by the new enemy, the straight White Christian male. This juxtaposition confirms the old claim that if your White your racist.

First grade teachers

The controversy surrounding the teaching of sex differences to first graders deserves more scrutiny. We have teachers with special training who teach sex education in 6th and 11th grade and the subject matter is age appropriate. For example in 11th a movie showing a live birth is presented. The educational system is based on teachers being proficient in the area of their expertise. If a student asks a question in English class about algebra the teacher refers the student to the algebra department. This is common sense but suddenly first grade teacher are asked to explain sex change an eight year old. What happens if the child asks questions about birth control, the death penalty and abortion. These questions should be in the realm of the parents. The first grade teacher neither has the time nor the training to answer these questions. Their job is to teach reading and writing and maintain a safe learning environment in the classroom which means treating people with dignity and respect. There is a world of difference between telling a child not to hit and telling them not have an abortion. Let parents take care of their responsibilities and teachers take care of theirs. It is highly unlikely that any teacher wants the responsibility of explaining birth control to young children.