Income gap

Income inequality rose quickly during the 40 years of globalization (1970 to 2010). Starting in 2010 as globalization slowed the rate of the increase in the gap began to slow. One way to continue this trend and at the same time to shore up social security is to place social security tax on all earned income much like is done on Medicare taxing. Another is to reduced social security benefits to those above a certain income. This would keep the rich from just collecting more benefits since they paid in more. This is one of the simplest ways to close the income gap since the programs to do this are already in place. Added to this should be the elimination of capital gains tax because this income is not subject to social security tax and that is where rich people get most of their income. All of this new income would go directly to social security which would make it difficult for the politicians to use the money for new programs.

Jobs

The political class is at a loss to explain why blue collar working people are moving away from the democratic party. Many feel the answer lies is globalization. This was the time between 1970 and 2010 when many manufacturing jobs were sent overseas in order to make increased profits for large corporations. Liberal politicians promoted this concept of the global economy because they were enamored with the idea of globalism. They championed the UN, the WHO, the WTO and even the World Court. It took almost 40 years but the little guy to finally figured out that this global stuff was the reason their jobs disappeared. About the time this all came to pass Trump came along and these workers saw him as a way to regain some of their past good jobs. They saw his Make America Great Again as the return of their good paying jobs. The wealthy who got much wealthier are now part of the democratic party. The promoters of globalization never took into account the disastrous consequences to the middle income people. They never saw them and for many that is still the case. These middle income Americans want good jobs and safe neighborhoods. Regardless of who is elected the economy in the coming years will grow faster than anytime in history and the good jobs are coming back. In the next few years the industrial base will double and bring the good jobs back and inflation.

Quantum

As computer chips get smaller they can get more done and use less energy so progress is gauged by how small they can get. The number of transistors on a chip have been increasing since chips were invented. The number of transistors on a chip is doubling every two years, something called Moore's Law. The size of a chip is measured in nanometers. A human hair is 100,000 nanometers wide and the smallest chips are 3 with 2 coming in next year. After that things change because the space runs into the limits of physics. At this point the chips will go three dimensional and the whole process of getting smaller starts over again. IMEC, the world's most advanced chip maker is working on this. After that comes something called quantum computing.

Hitler

Calling people racist has been used so often it is losing its sting. Now the same thing is happening comparing things and people to Hitler or some other evil. Mrs. Biden spoke yesterday and said that before WW 2 Berlin was the center of LBBTQ in Europe and when these groups were attacked it led to Nazism. She went on to say that the same thing happened in Florida when they passed the don't say gay law. Now our democracy is threatened because this is just the start. Something similar is happening with the existential threat idea. It is climate change, white supremacy, Russia or the latest thing that fits an agenda.

Education

The biggest problems facing the country today are the gap in test scores and the income gap. In the past I have proposed many ways to close the income gap and now I propose a revolutionary idea to help our education system. After a student learns how to read and write the rest of their schooling should be designed around the concept that you find out what you are good at and get better at it. If history is your thing then study history. If you are not good at math the forget about math. If you like to write then write. Starting in high school student will select courses that they have an interest in and not be forced to take a common curriculum. They will be required to take four courses each semester for a total of 16 courses. If they want to take 8 courses in reading and 8 courses in writing so be it. If they choose 16 courses in shop type things like auto repair, welding and carpentry so be it. If they only want to prepare for college than advisers can help them choose. This will allow students to spend their time learning about things they have an interest in and at the same time get them prepared for work after school. This is just an outline of a new way of doing things. Others can make improvements with their ideas. It is a start.

Cheat

Rasmussen polling found that out of every 1,000 people there would always be 3 or 4 who were far more radical than everyone else. These people had three things in common. They had post graduate degree, family incomes above $150,000 and lived in large cities. When Rasmussen aggregated the responses from more than 20 surveys, he realized these people made up a unique elite 1 percent. He then did a national survey of only people with these characteristics and found some astonishing results. The elite 1% gave Biden an 82% approval rating while the public gave only 41%. The elite 1 percent are surprisingly young. Sixty-seven percent are between 35 and 54 years old. They are 86 percent white. Almost half of them (47 percent) favor “Sanders-like policies.” They are overwhelmingly Democrats (73 percent). 57% of all voters say there is not enough individual freedom and 47% of the elite say there is too much individual freedom. When asked if it would be OK to cheat to win an election only 7% of Americans said yes but 35% of the elite said yes. Even more startling was that a special group of the elites who were politically obsessed where 93% said they would cheat to win.

Mail

Over the past 20 years voting by mail has become more popular and this accelerated in 2016 and more so in 2020. In 2016, 33 million voted by mail and that increased to 65 million in 2020. Many states passed laws making it easier to vote by mail and many areas increased the early voting time. Most experts say that elections are won by the independent voter but recently the mail in voter has become a determining factor. The 2024 election will largely decided by mail in which means the winner will have the best ground game of harvesting ballots.

Bond

The 8th amendment of the constitution says, Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Recently courts have eliminated bond saying it discriminates against poor people. Bond was instituted to assure that people will show up for their court date. The result is that without bond many accused of crimes are not showing up for their court date. In the recent Trump case the bond was set at $475 million which many would consider excessive but more importantly Trump was not a flight risk so there was no real need for any bond.

Ships

People are often surprised to find out that small nuclear reactors have been powering military vessels since the 1950's and these ships can go 30 years without refueling. There are currently 450 nuclear powered ships including submarines and 11 aircraft carriers. On a submarine the engine is 30 feet in diameter and 40 feet long. These have power of about 200 megwatts. In the future most commercial ships will be nuclear powered. Rolls Royce in England has been building these reactors for 60 years and the company is one of several that are currently building small nuclear reactors for land use. Overall build time is expected to be four years for a 470 MWe plant for a cost of $2 billion dollars.

SS

A bill has been introduced to remove tax on social security benefits. Prior to 1984 social secuity benefits were not taxed but that year the law changed to start taxing, if income was above a certain amount. This meant the lower income people would not be effected. For those who were taxed it would mean double taxation because the employer contributions were made with after tax dollars. The new law is presented as a tax reduction and is called the You Earned It You Keep It Act. The first question that comes up is why is Congresswomen Angie Craig, a democrat, introducing a bill to lower taxes. The answer is that it increases the tax on those putting money into the system. Currently people pay a 6.2% social security tax on the first $168,000 of earned income. This bill will tax all income effective in 2032 and it would take money from the rich and give it to the middle income group. The lower half of all social security receipients would not be effected since they don't pay taxes. If the bill passes then a person earning $500,000 would see their contribution increase from $10,400 per year to $31,000. When this person retires with $500,000 of income from all sources they would not have to pay tax on their $46,000 social security benefit which would save them about $18,000 in taxes. They would put in an extra $21,000 to save $18,000 at retirement. If the person earned $1 million they would pay in an extra $52,000 to save that $18,000. If the person earned $10,000,000 they would pay in an extra $520,000 to get back $18,000. This is one way to close the income gap and help to save social security which in 2033 will begin to reduce benefits to retirees. It will not require a lot of new paperwork since the system is already in place.

Name

How things are named tend to influence what people believe about them. It is a mistake to say that the US is a christian country but it is acceptable to say that the people believe in certain principals like love your neighbor as yourself, forgive others who have wronged you, love your enemies, don't harbor resentments, repent when you have done wrong, feed the hungry and clothe the naked. These are things that most people agree that represent good citizenship. Names change. Pro abortion became pro choice which became women's health. On the border illegal immigrants became migrants which became newcomers. It is OK to use euphemisms but not to lose track of the situation. For example the border. There are 400,000 illegal immigrants in school at an average cost of $15,000 per student per year. Added to that is the disruption caused by the language barrier. The government has lost track of 85,000 children who are probably not in school A May 2017 report from Doctors Without Borders said that of more than 400 people surveyed in Mexico at facilities that help migrants, 31.4 percent of women had been sexually abused during their transit through Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations (OFO) together seized nearly 549,000 pounds of illicit drug substances nationwide in FY 2023. Cartels make $13 billion per year from migrants The National Immigration forum says 75% of unaccompanied children arriving at the US Mexico border are victims of human trafficking.

AG James

New York AG Letitia James campaigned on a promise to get Trump. She said he was a "con man" a "carnival barker" and pledged to shine a "bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings". On the night she was elected she said when talking about Trump, "He should know that we here in New York and I in particular are not scared of you". She campaigned on a pledge to sue Trump saying he was " a real pain in the a--". She vowed in her 2018 campaign to pursue a man she said was,"illegitimate president and an embarrassment". She hoped to succeed in passing a state law that would close the pardon loophole. She said, "I don't really pay much attention to Mr. Trump. I look forward to seeing him in court when I assume my new position".

One word

As I read about contemporary history, which for me, means since WW2, I can think of each president in terms of one or two words. I started out campaigning for Stevenson against Ike. I remember Ike as the Interstate Highways, Kennedy as the Bay of Pigs, Johnson as the Great Society, Nixon as Watergate, Carter as Stagflation, Reagan as the Wall, Bush 41 as the Iraq War, Clinton as Monica, Bush 43 as 9-11, Obama as Obamacare, Trump as disruption and Biden is still to new to name.

Border

The stories about the illegal migrants crossing the border are in the news almost daily and this ignores the serious problem of drugs and unaccompanied children. CBP continues to surge enforcement to stop dangerous drugs from entering the country; our agents and officers interdicted 294% more methamphetamine, 164% more heroin, and 140% more cocaine in February than January. This does not include the 80,000 per year who die from fentenyl and most of these are young people. Nearly 130,000 children entered the shelter system in 2022 surpassing the 122,000 that came through in 2021. There are another 85,000 unaccounted for and they could be anywhere.

Debt

For most of my life I have heard various experts, in and out of government, say we cannot keep spending more than we are taking in. In other words expenses cannot exceed revues for ever. Year after year certain conservatives running for congress preach the line that the country will go broke unless we cut spending. The current US debt to GDP ratio is 130% and they say this is unsustainable. Japan recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 263.90 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2022. Government Debt to GDP in Japan averaged 146.28 percent of GDP from 1980 until 2022, reaching an all time high of 263.90 percent of GDP in 2022 and a record low of 50.60 percent of GDP in 1980. Japan is the third largest economy in the world just after the US and China. China’s debt is more than 250 percent of GDP, higher than the United States. It remains lower than Japan, the world’s most indebted leading economy, but some experts say the concern is that China’s debt has surged at the sort of pace that usually leads to a financial bust and economic slump. Is the debt the problem or the speed at which the debt accumulates.

Contractors

In Eisenhower's farewell speech he warned about dangers of the military industrial complex. Those warnings were echoed by President Biden when he recently said regarding the $65 billion bill to sent money to Ukraine: “While this bill sends military equipment to Ukraine,” Biden said Tuesday, “it spends the money right here in the United States of America in places like Arizona, where the Patriot missiles are built; and Alabama, where the Javelin missiles are built; and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, where artillery shells are made.” Not counting supplemental spending, the United States plans to dedicate about $900 billion to the military this year. Almost half of this amount will go to a handful of huge defense contractors enjoying immense profits, which have significantly increased as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Iraq

As the US pursues the Ukraine War it is time to review what happened in the Iraq War. During the Iraq/Iran War from 1980 to 1986 the US provided Iraq with various forms of WMD and these were used by Iraq against the Iranian citizens on numerous occasions. Iraq actively researched and later employed WMD from 1962 to 1991. In 1991 it destroyed its WMD and halted all programs. Bush invoked this use as justification for seeking regime change in Iraq. In the early 2000's Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair both asserted that Iraq's WMD programs were still active and that large stockpiles of WMD were hidden in Iraq. Iraq failed to comply with Security Council Resolution 1441 which demanded that Saddam give, "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" with UN inspections. The government repeatedly offered information stating that the US must go to war to prevent Saddam from developing WMD and in March of 2003 the US invaded. The war went on for eight years during which time 4,492 Americans were killed at a cost of $728 billion dollars and the lives of 200,000 Iraqi citizens and another 100,000 Iraqi soldiers. There were no WMD found and after the war there was speculation that the US had used WMD as a reason for war without sufficient proof. Later it was revealed that the US used coercive tactics to secure the votes needed to pass resolution 1441 which gave permission to go to war. Can the American people feel confident that the information being presented by the government concerning Ukraine is correct. Is it possible that facts are being changed to promote the continuation of the war which has now cost the lives of 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 120,000 injured at a cost of $178 billion. This is only the second year

Trump

The phrase Trump derangement syndrome has been bandied about to the point where it is difficult to define but recent events have made it clear what it means. As Trump is threatened with losing his property, some on TV are so thrilled they cannot contain their delight. It can best be described by the German word schadenfreude which means bad joy. There are people who so dislike Trump that they get real gratification out of his misfortunes. Schadenfreude can be triggered when individuals believe that the person experiencing misfortune deserves it due to their actions, character flaws, or immoral behavior It seems that is the case with Trump. To some it appears to be more like Karma. This man who is easy to dislike finally got his comeuppance. There is a certain pleasure in watching a well known person fall from grace. One newsman said he could not believe how good it feels to see Trump begging for money.

Health problems

There is bill in the MN house to legalize physician assisted suicide. A terminally ill, mentally capable adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live, the option to request, obtain and take medication — should they choose — to die peacefully in their sleep if their suffering becomes unbearable. This will legalize what has been going on for some years now. A cancer patient declines chemo and goes home where he is connected to a morphine pump to be used at his discretion to relieve pain. The use of morphine to reduce pain requires larger and larger doses to be effective and in short order the patient dies. To most people this seems reasonable but it is one more step down the road that was started with aborting babies with medical problems. Can these two agreements be combined to allow infanticide under certain conditions.

Grid

A number of energy experts in the US questioned Germany's push to replace nuclear with wind and solar before they discovered that the country as a whole does not have much wind or sunhine. They were questioned about their ability to plan long range. Now the US is finding itself in the same position. There are hundreds of completed wind and solar programs sitting idle while they wait to connect to the grid. There are not enough power lines and the grid is overloaded. Who would have thunk it. Did these experts not look ahead to see this problem. It should not have been a surprise because the availability of space to connect to the grid has not changed. It seems they did not only have a plan but didn't even recognize the problem. Some feel the rush to gobble up government subsidies clouded their judgement. The same thing that happened to electric cars. Too many cars and too few charging stations and even if they built the stations the grid could not supply the power.

Covid

With the benefit of hindsight people are realizing that closing the schools was not the best thing to do. They are now saying that six foot distancing and wearing mask for kids did not help. They now say that after a couple of months when it became obvious that children were not susceptible to Ovid but they forget that was not the reason the schools were closed. The fear was that the kids would bring home the virus to grandma. This of course is the same with the flu which kills 5,000 to 50,000 people each year.

Walk the talk

There is a similarity between climate change and deficit spending. People believe that climate change is a serious problem but they won't change their personal habits. They still want their big houses 20 miles from work with the large grassy yards and the SUV along with their gas powered toys and yard equipment not to mention the water and fertilizer. People are opposed to government debt but they don't want to give up any of the benefits the government provides, things like farm set asides, home interest and business deductions.

Ballots

In the last two elections ballot harvesting has come into play in a major way. The first step is to allow enough time to distribute and collect ballots. This works best when you have extended voting periods and easy voting my mail. The intention is to get more eligible voters to vote. This is of and by itself an admirable goal but it can be misused and some say is was misused. Just how this misuse is carried out can be understood in this example. Eligible voters are found from city records. The democrats have been especially active in this area so using them as the example we have. A campaign worker goes to the home of a potential voter and brings with him a voter registration form and a mail in ballot form. Each is filled out with the worker helping the voter. The registration form is mailed in and sometime later the ballot is either mailed or put into a drop box. In some cases the worker is paid by the number of ballots collected and in some cases the voter is offered a few dollars. A recount of the votes will have no effect since all ballots are filled out and signed by the voter. Parts of this example are illegal but not easily uncovered. In the Georgia governor election the campaign workers for Stacy Abrams brought in 800,000 new voters using ballot harvesting. No one knows if the worker helped the voter fill out the ballots or not.

Real estate

Most people are not real estate developers like Trump but most people who own their homes understand how real estate works. When a person appraises your home they use what are called comps. These are comparisons between similar homes in your area to determine the value of your home. If these comps indicate that your house is valued at $400,000 then the bank will offer to finance the home at that price with a suitable down payment and proof that the buyer can meet then monthly payment. During times when real estate values are rising it is not uncommon for several buyers to bid on a given property in which case the sale price may be above the appraised value. If the buyer is credit worthy they can get a loan to cover the purchase. Under the right conditions the bank will offer the loan. If a person has exceptional credit the bank may offer the loan at a price considerably higher than the appraised value. In the situation with developers who are selling large shopping malls or high rise office buildings it is not always easy to get comps so the price is settled upon by bargaining between the buyer and the seller and if the bank approves the loan is offered. The seller will puff up the value and the buyer will bargain it down. Trump is being accused of inflating the price of his property but the loans went through and the banks made money.

Zero carbon

In the future small nuclear reactors will be installed on site to service all types of industrial plants. These include steel and aluminum along with assembly plants for various products like autos and kitchen appliances. Each unit will be sized for the job at hand. These reactors will be combined with new gas powered turbines to produce low cost carbon free electric power. The units will owned and operated by the reactor manufacturer and the power will be sold on site to the user. This will eliminate the need for long transmission lines and save grid power for other uses such as charging stations for cars. These reactors will be build in a plant on an assembly line and transferred by semi truck to the use point. The will be small up to 100 Megawatt units that can be combined when the need for power increases. These reactors use no water and operate at room pressure so there is no safety concerns. They produce far less waste than conventional nuclear plants and can use up much of the existing stored waste. In time they will be used to manufacture hydrogen which will be used for transportation and replace electric cars. They will also be used to desalt sea water to irrigate desert areas and increase food production. Other units will be used to synthesize liquid fuels for airplanes and heavy equipment and they will use CO2 extracted from the air and returned to the air when burned for a net zero increased in CO2. In time most of the long cross country power lines will be replaced with these small units that will be placed closer to the use points. A small nuclear plant requires about 35 acres of land vs a standard nuclear plant that needs 500 acres. In the future there will be no need for windmills, solar panels and electric cars and the country will be at net zero for carbon.

Arrest

The controversy surrounded the recent court ruling which allows Texas police to arrest illegal migrants is coming from an unusual angle. Those opposed say this will lead to racial profiling. Common sense says this is exactly what will happen. It would be inefficient to stop people based on some statistical sampling. If a person is sent to Heathrow Airport in London to observe incoming passengers looking for potential terrorist they would not use random searching. They would concentrate on brown skinned males coming in from the Middle East as opposed to watching blue eyed blonds coming in from Scandinavian Countries. No matter what procedure is used there is always the possibility of stopping an innocent person but hopefully after investigation this person would be released. When police put out an all points bulletin they describe the person in detail. White male between ages 20 and 30 and about 6 feet tall wearing a brown coat and a red baseball hat. Do they expect the Texas police to stop elderly White women just to make it seem like they are not profiling.

Liberals

There is a common theme being expressed in the political world today which basically says please bring back the old time liberal democrats. They have been taken over by a new left group who calls themselved progressives. Liberals promote free speech and do not try to ban speech. Liberals promote judging people by their deeds not their race. Liberals promote education using the three R's not gender affirmation. Liberals promote a safety net that is a helping hand not a way of life. Liberals promote integration and unity not segregation and disunity. Liberals promote individual rights not group rights. Liberals promote equal opportunity not equal results. Liberals promote meritocracy not mediocrity. Liberals promote different ideas not cancel culture. Liberals promote rule of law not feelings. It's time for the liberals to speak up and take back control of the democratic party.

Abortion

Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal disorder, affecting approximately 1 in every 700 births. A systematic review on published literature in the US has estimated that termination rates range from 67% to 85% among the overall population of individuals with a positive prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.Mar 21, 2023 It is reasonable to assume that in the future more abortions will be used to prevent what some will considered unwanted characteristics. It doesn't take much imagination to go down a list as you go down the slippery slope. As science is able to predict other traits people will get more particular. Beginning with many other medical problems and proceeding to the wrong gender and on an on finally reaching what are called designer babies. Picking the right physical, mental and emotional traits will become common place. Is there an ethical problem with having a world full of healthy people who all look like Hollywood movie stars. Breeding animals and plants is already a long way down this road.

Trump

The news often says there is a threat to democracy and that is correct and it started with the run up to the 2016 election. First off the FBI used false information to get warrants from the FISA court to spy on the Trump campaign and later after his election. This led to the investigation claiming Trump colluded with Russia to win the election and resulted in the December 2019 impeachment. Going into the 2020 Trump reelection campaign the Hunter Biden tapes were covered up by the FBI and they put pressure on social media to ban the story. Trump lost the election and after the loss the house impeached him for the second time after he was out of office what some called justice and others called revenge. Coming into the 2024 election Trump is charged with four criminal cases and three states have threatened to remove his name from the ballot. The thrust of the current campaign is that Trump is a threat to democracy. This is necessary because the old question are you better off today than you were four years ago must be avoided. Under Trump the country was energy independent, with a secure border, inflation under two percent, low crime and no wars. Since the discussion of policy is off the table the only thing left is to assassinate Trumps character and that is the strategy being used.

Renters

If you have a summer cabin where you spend your time, you would be wise to look into the laws regarding squatter rights in your state. In New York City a person can claim squatters rights after 30 days. Under the law, it is illegal for the homeowner to change the locks, turn off the utilities, or remove the belongings of the squatters. To legally remove the squatters takes up to six months and legal fees. The squatters often damage the property. The smart home owner would come home at least every 29 days and make sure their house is safe. Many years age I was transferred to another state on my job and I rented my house. It is not a good idea to be an absentee owner and rent your property. One renter refused to pay the rent and refused to leave. It took 9 months to evict these people partly because it was winter. In the end I had to hire movers to set the furniture out on the curb under the supervision of the sheriff. The truly strange thing was that the renter was minister. When he left he took the phone off the wall. In those days the phone company owned the phones to I had to pay for it.

Court

The Supreme Court is ruling on a case that arose out of efforts by the government to push social media platforms to take down posts that officials said spread falsehoods about the pandemic. A U.S. district court judge said White House officials violated free speech by "coercing" or "significantly encouraging" decisions by social media sites. Some say the government has a duty to take steps to protect the citizens from misinformation. Justice Jackson said "I'm really worried about that, because you've got the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening circumstances from the government's perspective, and you're saying the government can't interact with the source of those problems." Will or should the fact that much of the misinformation turned out be true have any effect on the final decision.

Trump

I had always felt that the way to get Trump was to investigate his real estate business because the construction business in New York City has a history of corruption. I never thought the charge would be over valuing property because that is standard procedure in real estate. Judge Arthur Engoron is a long time liberal elected in a district that voted 90% for Biden. The NY Attorney General Letitia James who is fixated on Trump as she campaigned branding Trump as a "con man" and "carnival barker" and pledged to shine a "bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings." That is why I was surprised that she came up with the overvalue charge. There had to be other misdeeds but in bringing those up might have opened the door to other real estate operators.

Poverty

Data shows that less than 20 percent of black babies in the 1950s were born to single mothers and that rose to 72.3 percent in 2008. Those mothers are far more likely than married mothers to be poor. They are also more likely to pass that poverty on to their children. Single-mother families are five times more likely to live in poverty than two-parent families. This leads to higher school drop out rates and higher rates of incarceration. The war on poverty started in 1964 and provided many new benefits for single moms and many feel that contributed to the increase in single parent families. This has expanded and today has many benefits. Here are some programs. housing assistance, TANF(food stamps), child care, Medicaid, head start, WIC(women, infants and children), cash assistance, emergency food assistance, CHIP(children health insurance program, Pell Grants, tax credits, unemployment insurance, affordable dentures, LIHEAP(low income energy assistance program), food pantries and community clinics. This situation would have been worse if it were not for abortions. The abortion rate for Black women is five times that for White women. Of the 63 million abortions since Roe, 25 million or 40% have been Black moms. These 25 million would have increased to 50 million and more than doubled the Black population which today is at 43 million. Most people agree that these benefits are necessary and are part of societies safety net. The question remains are there unintended consequences.

EV's

Jennifer Granholm, Energy Secretary, said today that auto manufacturers are moving toward electri cars, not because of new government regulation but because it helps their bottom line. What's happening: Ford announced today that it's cutting output of the battery-powered F-150 Lightning to make more Bronco SUVs and Ranger pickup trucks. The CEO of Stellantis — which owns Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep — told reporters today that the auto industry risked an EV "bloodbath" if a pricing war started by Tesla continues. Rental car giant Hertz said last week that it plans to sell 20,000 of its electric vehicles and buy more gas-powered rentals. GM stopped selling its Chevy Blazer EV — a brand-new model — late last month because of charging and software issues. This is the same lady that said tanks could run on batteries.

Dreams

In today's world where the news constantly emphasizes our differences it is good to recognize where we are united. Here is a partial list on which all political parties agree. The only differences here is how each group wants to achieve these dreams. Constitution TaxesLiving wage Jobs Freedom Peace Work life balance Family Home Friends Spirituality Good health Military Free speech Equal opportunity Safety net No racism Safe neighborhoods Good schools

Hillary

Hillary Clinton gave a speech this week and it mimicked her recent book. In the book she list 16 reasons why she lost the 2016 election. In the speech she says I take full responsibility for the loss but. Here are a few examples of the buts Herself listing her emails Russia DNC provided no money Sexism and misogyny Bernie Sanders attacks Wikileaks Political journalist TV coverage James Comey Low information voters

Social security

The current social security retirement system is unfair and racist. Consider a White female vs a Black male both age 62 and both having lifetime average earnings of $60,000. Both would be eligible for $1,224 per month. The White female has a life expectancy at age 62 of 80.5 years while the Black male at age 62 has a life expectancy of 69.0 years. This means the White lady will collect $272,000 while the Black male will collect $103,000. If this retirement fund were privatized they would both end up with the same amount of money and when they died these funds could be passed on to their hairs.

Social security

How to privatize social security retirement benefits. For every $100 that social security pays out $78.60 goes to retirement, $12.70 to disability and $8.70 to survivor benefits. The 6.2% deduction from wages means 4.87% is for retirement .78% for disability and .54% for survivor. The disability and survivor deductions would continue to go into the SS fund but the retirement benefit would be privatized. It would be patterned after the federal employees savings plan called Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) and contain three main investment options including fixed, stocks and bonds. This is the federal equivalent of a 401K plan and has been around since 1986. Surveys indicate that employees are very satisfied with the program. The transition to privatization would begin with everyone under the age of 50 and take 30 years to complete. The employees would have the freedom to chose how they invest their funds but they would not be allowed to access those funds until age 62. Comparing someone who starts today at age 22 with someone who remained in the current system and looking 40 years down the road we have the following. The stock market has average 10.7% over the past 100 years. Assuming that rate in the future here is the difference if the two people in out example retired today. Assume that both had a life time earnings average of $60,000 per year. The person who remained with SS would retire at $1,224 per month. The person who chose their own plan and earned 10.7% would have $338,000 in their account. If they invested that in government bonds earning 5% they would have $1,408 per month and retain their principle to pass on to their heirs.

Inflation

When someone says inflation is five percent or some other number it doesn't have much impact. For the last five years I have cut my own hair using something called the flowbee. Today I went to the barber and came face to face with inflation. Five years ago the haircut cost $12 but I got a $2 senior discount so I would leave the $2 as tip and the haircut cost me $12. Today it cost $18 with no senior discount and they pushed a computer screen in front of my face which gave me the option of a tip of 5 or 10 or 15 dollars so I chose $5 so my hair cut has gone from $12 to $23 in just the past five years. That is how people see inflation. When Biden says inflation is coming down he seems to think that means prices are coming down.

Tyler

People generally think that the problems facing the country are unique to their time but there are occasions from the past which reflect the present. The case of John Tyler who was vice president and became president after one month in office when President Harrison died suddenly. First off he was challenged by some who said the constitution says that in the case of ascendancy the VP is only temporary. His unexpected rise to power was a threat to others who were interested in the presidency. He was set upon by all sides with claims about his inexperience and illegitimacy. Most of the cabinet resigned and he had trouble keeping cabinet members having appointed 22 during his term. He faced a stalemate on every domestic policy. The congress brought impeachment charges against him as many members of his own party turned against him. He was excoriated in the press and called His Accidentcy. The whole thing upset the status quo and the bureaucrats didn't like it one bit.

Fifties

Since I was born in 1937, I was a child of the forties and fifties. I grew up in Springfield, IL but when someone asked me where I was from I didn't say Springfield but I said the north end. The depression and WW 2 had pulled people together and we thought of ourselves as our neighborhood. If someone was in trouble the whole neigborhood knew about it. I had a dozen dads and every father would report behavior to other fathers. As the 60's came along people changed. They were no longer a group but more like individuals and this was a sign of growth. We moved away from home after we finished school and began to spread out across the country. In the fifties we only had radio so we spent a lot of time outside. All that began to change when TV came along and that type of change had continued and accelarated up to and including today. Today people spend too much time indoors and too much time alone and it is hurting young people.

Social security

Our local congresswoman Angie Craig has introduced a bill to remove taxation on social security benefits. Her bill would reimburse the government for loss of tax by continuing the 6.2% deduction on all income over $250,000. Currently workers pay 6.2% of all income up to $168,000 but with her new bill that would resume on income above $250,000. This is a way to have high earners pay for the tax loss when taxing social security benefits goes away. This would help the problem of income distribution by helping low to middle income social security recipients from paying tax on their social security benefits. This is an indirect way to use a wealth tax.

Social security

The social security trust fund stopped paying out benefits from the interest earned on the fund in 2015 and has since been using principal to pay benefits. Unless changes are made the benefits paid in 2030 will be reduced. The government has difficulty in reducing the overall debt by raising taxes because when they do new programs are instituted instead of paying down debt. That would not be the case if social security taxes were increased. That is because all social security withhold must go into the social security fund. Currently every worker pays 6.2% into the fund and this is matched by the employer. This 6.2% could be increase to those earning more than some amount. This would increase taxes on the high earners and guarantee that the money would be used only for social security benefits. Simultaneously the cap on earnings of $160,000 could be increased. The most anyone can pay into social security is 6.2% of $160,000 or $9,900. The tax on high earners could be raised to 10% and the cap raised to $400,000 and these people would start paying in more. For example a person who currently earns $400,000 pays in $9,900 but with the changes they would pay in 6.2% of $160,000 plus 10% of $240,000 or $33,900. This would go a long way to protecting benefits for years. Then add to that raising the full retirement age to 70 for all people born after 2000 would add more safety. Then reduce benefits for all retirees with income over $400,000 on a sliding scale to zero benefits on all with income over a million. These are a few changes that could be made and they would be primarily paid for by the rich.

Schools

Having spent over 1,000 work days in 15 different high school, listening to teachers in the lunch room, I have some ideas about education today. The two main problems are the gap in test scores and disruptive students. Unfortunately both of these center around Black students. I now set aside two hours to hear all the reasons why this is so and concur with most of them. The next step is what to do about it. The government is acutely aware of these problems and have tried gallantly to do something but they have failed. Things like common core math, No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act have not brought the desired results. So what next. In St Paul there are many parents who understand the need for education but they are locked into schools where discipline is lacking and they would like their children to go to schools in the suburbs but transportation is not available. Special buses could be made available and a lottery system could be used to offer these student a way to change schools. Serious students would at least have a chance to learn in a safe environment. This type of experimenting will lead to other approaches and perhaps some solutions. It would not be expensive as experiments go.

Trump

What will happen if Trump is reelected. Some democrats say that Trump will declare a national emergency and take control of the government by way of insurrection. He will use his power as commander in chief to declare martial law and use the military to enforce his plans. Martial Law is when a city, state, or country is placed under the control of the military. This includes using military courts for trials during wartime and the use of military forces within the United States.  This brings up the question as to why Trump did not do this on January 6, 2021 but instead sat by and watched a couple of thousand enter the Capital building swinging clubs and waving flags. By the end of the day it was over and the people went home. Some say that Trump will use his power to punish those who oppose him but he did not move against Hillary when he was president. Trump supporters see a different scenario. If Trump is reelected he will open up the spigot on fossil fuels, he will reinstate his border policies, negotiate a peace with Putin, reinstall the sanctions on Iran, expand the Abraham Accords, investigate the migrants and deport those with criminal past and set the stage for work permits for the rest, have congress set up a new committee to curtail the power of the intelligence groups, much like the Church Committee in 1975 and continue the push to bring business back home. During his second term he will oversee the doubling of the US industrial base by encouraging reshoring. In four year he will leave the country with a booming economy with high inflation. It will be up to his successor to tame inflation and offer a path to citizenship for those migrants with work permits. At this point the only thing standing in the way of his reelection is ballot harvesting and if that is successful then the country will have four years of Biden to Harris. In either case the economic exspanion will continue and it will not be the of democracy.

Vietnam

While taking in the news about the Ukraine War be reminded of what happened in the Vietnam War. In early August 1964, two U.S. destroyers stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed that they had been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. In response to these reported incidents, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission from the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. military presence in Indochina. On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. This resolution became the legal basis for the Johnson and Nixon Administrations prosecution of the Vietnam War. Later it was revealed that there was no attack on August 4. U.S. Officials had distorted the truth about the Gulf of Tonkin incident for their own gains and perhaps for Johnson's own political prospects. This lie jumstarted a war that would claim 58,220 American and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. October 24, 2022

California

California has come up with a way to use a wealth tax based on income. There will be a surcharge on utilities based on income. The more you earn the more you pay. Under the utilities' joint proposal, income-based fixed charges for households with annual incomes between $28,000 and $69,000 would be $20 to $34 per month. Those earning between $69,000 and $180,000 would pay $51 to $73 per month, and those earning more than $180,000 would pay $85 to $128.Feb 7, 2024 The problem with this is that the state income tax bureau will let the utility company know what your income is and this threatens privacy. It would be easy for hackers or unscrupulous employees to leak income data and most people prefer to keep this private.

Marijuana

VP Harris made the news by calling on the Department of Health and Human Sevices to reclassify marijuana. No one should go to jail for smoking pot, Harris said. As of March 7, 2024 there were 155,692 federal prison inmates. Of these 81,900 were serving sentences for drug offense and 99% of those are for drug trafficking. Data from the US Sentencing Commission showed that only 92 people were sentenced for marijuana possession in 2017 out of nearly 20,000 drug convictions. At year end 2021 one million people were incarcerated in state prisons and 636,000 in local jails. In Minnesota out of 10,114 people in prison only 50 people are there for marijuana and 35 of those have prior felony convictions.

War

In reviewing the Ukraine War, the question comes up as to why it started and there are two camps. The first says that Russia was allowed to get away with murder figuratively and literally as they killed various people around the world, using fake accidents and poison. They tricked the President of Georgia into making a mistake so they could invade and take over part of his country and nothing happened. They annexed Crimea and paid no price. The held elections in the Donbas region and took over those areas with only small reisitance. The next move was to invade Ukraine and so far sanctions have not hindered their advancment. It was only logical to assume that they would keep on going until stopped. The second side explains the invasion by saying that for 20 years Russia kept complaining about NATO expansion and the West kept promising there would be no advancement but they kept moving east. Putin announced that his red line was Ukraine joining NATO and when it looked like that was about to happen he invaded. Let us assume that both of these sides had ligitimae concerns and then ask, what now. The war is two years old and both sides realize that they serverely miscalcuted how the war would go. It is like the GPS on your car. When you make a wrong move the voice says recalculating. It is time for both sides to sit down and admit that mistakes were made and take steps to recalculate. It is time to reach a peace agreement. The ineptness of the Russian military has been exposed and the refusal of NATO to use ground troops is exposed so they can continue to drag out this conflict to the detriment of both sides or they can allow common sense to intervene and reach a peaceful settlement. Those who watch the war carefully now agree that in the long run that this is the only way out.

EV's

Congress at the urging of the Biden administration agreed in 2021 to spend $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of electric vehicle chargers across the country, aiming to appease anxious drivers while tackling climate change.Two years later, the program has installed four chargers. The two main reasons for this are first trying to get around various environmental regs and second the sale of EV's is falling behind projections. The announced grants, split between 22 states and Puerto Rico, aim to fill numerous and wide gaps in the EV charging network. Where is the money now. It would be so much wiser to install natural gas pumps at stations and start making cars that run on natural gas. This, however, would not fit the politics of the Greenies.

Migrants

One of the ways the Biden administration is using to limit the number crossing the southern border is to fly migrants directly from the Carribian to New York. The program allows 30,000 migrants from four countries (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela) per month in a humanitarian parole program. So far 357,000 have been allowed in under this program. This week this program was upheld by the courts.

Computers

The statement that computers increased productivity is often heard but sometimes a simple example can best explain. I was doing retirement planning for people back in the 1970's and to illustrate what things would look like in the future I had to do a year by year calculation which took several hours on each case. At that time companies made their main frame computers available to people in the field and I could send in the data to our New York office and they would print out a nice neat program for me to present to the client. It was about a two week turn around to get this information. A few years later the district office got a computer and I sent things to Fargo which meant a three day turn around. In 1982 I purchased a Osborne computer for $1,200 and a engineering student at the local university set up some soft ware for me so I could to these calculation in my office in less than one hour but I couldn't print them out so I had the secretary type things out for me. Finally in the 1990's personal computers became available and I could to a complete program for a client in about one hour including printing and putting in a nice folder. What used to take several hours and several weeks could now be completed in one hour.

Climate

People in the United States and most of the developing world have a distorted idea about climate change. They see the world only from their viewpoint. To them replacing fossil fuels means a little higher monthly utility bill and driving an electric car. To other parts of the world things look much different. In 1947 India, the largest country on earth by population, gained independence from England. At that time their average life expectancy was 32 and today it is 72. This was the result of cheap energy mostly coal. This was the same leap in prosperity that the US experience 100 years before India. They see the US as the country that achieved its enviable standard of living using fossil fuels and now they want other countries to forego that achievement by going to wind and solar. Not so fast they say. Now it is our turn. Indonesia is a the forth most populous country and has grown rapidly in the past 50 years. Their poverty rate has declined from 70% to 10% but they still spend 50% of their income on food. Indonesia is one of the worlds largest coal producers hitting a record high of 775 million tons in 2023. The country burned 33% more coal in 2023 than in 2022. These people are not interested in climate change when their main concern is putting food on the table. The average income is $7,000 per year.

Biden

Some of Biden's policies seem contradictory to many. He is providing Israel with the weaponry they need to attack the people in Gaza while he is proposing to build a dock to send aid into Gaza. He wants to send additional border agents and judges to cope with the migrants whom he allows to come in. He wants the US to lower the CO2 footprint while he has increasedfossil fuel production to record highs. He wants Ukraine to defeat Russia but doesn't want to use troops. In the State of the Union address he said there were no soldiers of war in Ukraine. Many interpret that as meaning there are US troops in Ukraine but they are not combat troops. This is from a site called Responsible Statecraft. Apr 18, 2023 — According to the document there were 97 special forces from NATO countries operating in Ukraine as of March, including 14 U.S. special forces Here is an ominous quote from Senator Coons from Feb 16, 2024 U.S. troops will be on the front lines against Russia without further Ukraine aid.

Devil

Comedian Flip Wilson coined the phrase, the devil made me do it, as an excuse for his behavior. Most people who use this excuse are covering up the fact that they chose to let the devil in. If someone hurts you then resentment will come knocking at your door and you can say come on in or get away from me. If your friend gets the promotion you wanted and jealousy knocks at your door you can say come on in or get away from me. If someone does serious harm to your friend and hate comes to your door you can say come on in or get away. If your friend comes from a wealthy family and envy comes to call you can say come on in or go away. You might conclude like Flip did that these emotions are the devil but in fact they are part of the human psyche where all emotions reside. The emotion itself has no moral value but how you deal with the emotion will determine how your life proceeds. There is an old adage that says when you are resentful it's like taking poison and expecting the other person to get sick.

Russia

Ukraine is increasing its rocket strikes into Russia and yesterday they hit a refinery that resulted in a large fire which will shut down both grain and oil exports. The grain will result in more food pressure in Africa and the oil will result in higher prices for most. If this escalation keeps up there will come a time when NATO troops are asked to intervene on Ukraine's behalf. At that point the US people will face a decision. Is keeping Russia from taking over Europe worth the life of one American soldier. Or will the people come to the conclusion that Russia will not take over and proceed to a peaceful settlement of the war.

Podcast

My grandson introduced me to podcast several months ago and since I have lots of time on my hands, I have watched many different groups and have come to the conclusion that podcast, much like talk radio, is mostly conservative. I believe the reason for this is that the impetus to start a podcast was that main media outlets were so liberal and these new entrepreneurs saw an opening for a hungry audience much like Fox News did. Many of these podcasters admit that they are liberal but not progressive. To me this means they are liberal the way liberals were years ago but the party has been dragged to the far left by a small but outspoken group. Liberals are for equal opportunity. Liberals are for a progressive income tax system. Liberals are for freedom of speech. Liberals are for a strong national defense. Liberals are for law and order. Liberals are for integration. Liberals promote unity. Progressives are for equal results. Progressives are for taxing assets. Progressives are for limiting speech by calling it misinformation. Progressives are for cutting defense spending. Progressives are for defunding police. Progressives are for segregation (identity politics). Progressives promote division. In time these groups will move further and further left until they become irrelevant. All the things that liberals want are the same things that conservatives want but they have different approaches to achieving their objectives. The best thing about podcast is that they allow people to express different ways of looking at situations.

Equity

There are a number of cultural changes the country is experiencing. Things like gender affirmation which include changing gender and proper pronoun usage are of concern but somewhat peripheral issues. The one issue that is most important and can change society in a significant way is equity. When equality of opportunity is replace with equality of results the whole country will change. This means things like striving for excellence is passe and mediocrity is the norm. We should approach all walks of life like a good athlete goes into the game. We should win with humility, lose with grace and do both with dignity but we should always try to win otherwise it is an insult to our competitors.

War

Headlines say that the Ukraine War has reached an impasse with both sides adding daily to their casualty lists. Putin has once again said he is ready to negotiate a peace. He wants to keep the Donbas area and Ukraine wants to take it back. This is from the New York Times. Troop deaths and injuries in Ukraine Was near 500,000, US official say. Ukraine and Russia have lost a staggering number of troops as Kyiv's counteroffensive drags on. A lack rapid medical care has added to the toll. The West now faces decision time. Will continuing the war give Ukraine the upper hand in negotiating and if so how long and at what cost. The stated fear of not winning the war is that Russia will then go into the next country and keep going until they win back the old Soviet territories. Is that still the fear or has Russia's ineptness at war shown that they will not be able to conquer more territories. At this point the war seems to be an ongoing thing for at least the foreseeable future. Will things look different in two more years with 500,000 more dead and billions more wasted destroying the Ukraine infrastructure.

Intelligence

Most people today do not remember the Church Committee. It was a group of senators headed by Frank Church who set about to investigate what is called today the deep state. They discovered that the various intelligence agencies were operating under cover without direct over sight. This led to serious abuses of power. As the information was made public the bureaucracy went after Church with all types of under handed releases of false information but it didn't work and the agencies had to start with a clean slate. Things still got a little out of control but when 9-11 happened that opened the door to push these agencies once again into darkness. The Patriot Act gave new powers to these groups and many feel it is time for another Church Committee. These intelligence groups are once again operating without proper oversight and this leads to abuse of power. The FISA court is one example. This is the court where intelligence agents go to get warrants to spy on people. Over the entire 33 year period the FISA court has been in operation the court granted 33,942 warrants with only 12 denials. The Fiscal Year 2023 budget appropriation included $71.7 billion for the National Intelligence Program.

Covid

There are a number of important lessons that can be garnered from the pandemic. Certain media took it upon themselves to determine what was true and not true about Covid. In many cases things that were considered not true were banned and things that were untrue were propagated. The result is that the arbiters of truth should be challenged and all opinions should be allowed. People who proposed treatments other than vaccination drugs like hydroxychloroguine and ivermectin were discouraged. These drugs had been used for many years without harmful side effects but Covid vax had never been tested and was promoted. President Biden offered an absolute guarantee that people who get the vax are completely protected from infection, sickness and death and his remarks were widely circulated. In spite of that many vaccinated people got Covid. Later the president said "people vaccinated for Covid could not spread the disease to anyone else. Yet many vaxed people did spread the disease. On the other hand information that was credible was banned. Dr Bhattacharya remarks about age based mortality risks and natural immunity were banned. His main message was contrary to Covid policies enacted across the country. He opposed mass testing and lock downs but his voice was not allowed on twitter. Others who suggested that Covid came from a lab leak as opposed to a transfer from an animal were shut down and yet that idea seems to be more plausible. The idea of social distancing was broadly promoted and yet there was no scientific reason to suggest that six feet offered protection. This meant that there was not room for student in the classroom so half were sent home to study. All of this has alerted people to the fact that when the government says or does something it should be investigated and if necessary challenged.

Trump

When I write about politics I usually stick to facts but once in a while, as a diversion, I play what if and today's game is what if Trump had been reelected in 2020. Everyone knows that Trump is a newcomer to politics and he is an enigma to many. To better understand Trump it helps to pay attention to what he does as opposed to what he says. For example he said that Putin was his friend but he placed severe sanctions on Russia. If Trump had been reelected he would have negotiated a peace with Putin by agreeing that Ukraine would not be invited to join NATO. This would have prevented the war and that alone would have been worth a Trump second term. Trump would have increased fossil fuel production to the max which would have kept energy prices low and avoided the inflation spike. He would have maintained his border policies which would have saved thousands of lives lost to fentenyl, cost the cartels millions, saved many women from trauma, prevented 85,000 children from being lost and major cities would not be overrun with migrants, many of whom are convicted criminals. He would have been a law and order president and offered strong backing to police. He would have continued the Abraham Accords and gotten Saudi Arabia to join with the other Arab countries to form an alliance against Iran. He would have kept the sanctions on Iran and not released their $150 billion in frozen assets. He would have added more items to the import tax list from China and pushed decoupling from China to bring jobs home. While this is only make believe it is a logical extension of Trump's first term. His opposition might claim that he would become a dictator and destroy our democracy but they would have to explain why he didn't do that when he was president. While both scenarios are possible the first is far more likely.

Tic Tok

There is big controversy surrounding Tic Tok because so many young people are on it. I have the solution to the problem without changing the laws or banning. Just have all the parents start using Tic Tok and the kids will be off to some other site

Migrants

Most of the migrants coming across the border want to turn themselves into the authorities in order to claim asylum. They do not have to prove they deserve asylum as that comes some years later when they are asked to appear in court. This then entitles them to certain benefits one of which is an airline ticket so some city within the US. The got-a-ways forgo these benefits and they know that since the migrants are given instructions on what to do and what to say. They must have a good reason to forego these benefits.

Taiwan

It is often said and with good reason that a wounded animal is more dangerous. As the world looks at China today what is seen is the equivalent of a wounded animal. The real estate bubble is bursting, many companies are leaving China and others like the USA are placing import taxes on Chinese products. The average person has their life savings tied up in their houses and real estate is in trouble and this could lead to unrest amount the citizens. One way to bring people together and to spur economic growth is to declare war on Taiwan. Chinese leader Xi watched how Russia's economy came alive with the war production and my be willing to lose millions of lives in order to maintain power. Dictators can do that and the people would have no say in the matter.

Assets

Prior to the start of the war in Ukraine the Russians had some $385 billion dollars in various banks around the world. This represented the proceeds from the sale of exports so it was legitimate income. Russia quickly brought home about $100 billion of that before the West froze the remaining assets. Now the US and England want to confiscate those assets and give that money to Ukraine who can then use it to purchase military equipment, most of which will come from the USA. The problem is under current law the money cannot be seized unless it was gotten illegally which is not the case. So what to do. Europe has come up with a plan that would allow the West to take any earnings from the Russian money but not the principal. The US still insists that the entire amount be confiscated. Another way to access the Russia funds in what is considered legal is to add up all the money that companies lost when they pulled out of Russia at the start of the war. These companies had to leave expensive infrastructure that they paid for and want restitution. While this seems more reasonable than just confiscating the funds something a little questionable arises when the amount of these assets comes to $280 billion which is so close to the amount of money available. Is this just a coincidence. This opens the door to a possible peaceful settlement to the war. Russia can be given Crimea, which they had before the war, plus the Donbas which is the Russian speaking areas of Ukraine plus an agreement by the West not to invite Ukraine into NATO plus the return of the $285 billion in frozen assets. Let us see if anyone will make such a proposal. Will the US defense industry who see these assets as new military spending have any influence on the decision.

Ukraine

The slow march to disaster. Early on the US said no M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine and then in January of 2023 they sent tanks. May 24, 2023. The United States has long asked Ukraine not to use US provided military equipment to carry out attacks inside Russian territory. February 19, 2024. If Republicans continue to block US military aid to Ukraine, Biden could turn to an ally to provide Kyiv with ATACM missiles capable of striking Russian held Crimea. April, 12, 2023. Ukraine urged the US to send fighter jets. August 18, 2023. The US has approved sending F16 jets to Ukraine from Denmark to defend against Russians. Most recently France's President Macron said, "no consensus" on sending ground troops to Ukraine in an "official manner," but that "nothing was excluded." Ukraine is running out of supplies and running out of troops. Will the West be forced to send in troops as Macron says that option is not off the table. Biden has said no troops but he has changed his mind in the past. Does he view a loss in Ukraine as a black mark on his legacy.

Guard

During the summer riots of 2020 Senator Cotton wrote an oped piece in the New York Times suggesting that the National Guard be called in to quell the mobs. The staff at the Times was so upset the editor who allowed the article to be published was fired. Last week the Governor of New York called for the Guard to stop the crime in NY City and yesterday the Chicago unions called for the Guard to stop crime in Chicago. Not much protest in either case. To quote Bob Dillon, times are a changing.

Biden

Yesterday I said if the election were held today, I would vote for Trump. Here are the reasons I would not vote for Biden. He said he would rid the country of fossil fuels. He said, “I want you to look at my eyes. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.” He ended Trumps border policy which included forcing Mexico to put troops on their border with Guatemala, instituting remain in Mexico, stopping catch and release, stopping the wall and inviting migrants into the country. Here is a quote from the debates  "I would in fact make sure that there is… We immediately surge to the border, all those people who are seeking asylum." He wanted to cut the budget to police. In an interview in July of 2020, Biden was asked about funding police and he responded yes to the question “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the [police] funding?” Barkan asked Biden. Biden removed the sanctions on Iran which gave them access to $150 billion dollars in funds that had been frozen 2015 Iran nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which granted Iran access to frozen assets. He failed to follow up on the Abraham Accords which was the first real break though in Mideast tensions in many years. Now that Israel this must be put on hold.

Israel

Morning Joe this day said he was at his wits end with the situation in Gaza. He said we can't keep going on like this and must step in and force Israel to reach a settlement. He has no like policy for Ukraine. At least in Israel there is a light at the end of the tunnel when Hamas is destroyed. In Ukraine the only solution is to keep on keeping on. The West doesn't want Russia to lose for fear of a nuclear reaction and it doesn't want Ukraine to lose for fear that Russia will try to take over Europe. They have a stalemate which is what they want.

Learning

The test scores show that not much progress has been made in public education including the gap between Black and White students. Class size has decreased steadily since the 1950's where 40 students per class was common. Catholic schools have more success than public schools even though they have larger class sizes and lower teacher pay. Catholic schools will expel students who present discipline problems. These facts tell the story that classroom discipline effects student learning and any teacher knows that. One disruptive student can effect the whole class. Black students are four times more likely than White students to be disruptive. Blacks represent 12% of public school students and 7% of Catholic school students. There is substantial research that supports the idea that Catholic school students often achieve higher levels of academic success and go on to become respected members of their communities.Jul 31, 2023 This data reveals that classroom discipline problems have serious effect on learning.

Future

If the elections were held today I would vote for Trump but if he didn't win I would not be upset. I realize that the economy is set to bring back good paying industrial type jobs as reshoring expands. The biggest problem over the next four years will be inflation and that will be the case regardless of which candidate wins. In four years both Biden and Trump will be forgotten and people will be adjusting to the new economy. There will be more jobs than applicants and the new migrants will help to alleviate the shortage. They will be given work permits and in time a path to citizenship. Unions will be revitalized and membership will rise. Supply chains will be much shorter as more things are made here in the USA. The real value of NAFTA will become apparent. This expanding economy will require far more energy so the production of fossil fuel will continue to rise. As the economy improves a lot of the strife will lessen and people will be more interested in their individual lives and political difference will become less important. The new industrial facilities will be very productive because of the latest technology including AI. After a few years wage increases will outpace inflation and people will once again see a future that is better for their children.

King

If I were king. If I could influence US foreign policy I would first off go to NATO and say we are going to negotiate with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. We offer them Crimea, the Dombas region and a agreement not to invite Ukraine into NATO. Then I would suggest that Europe begin a Marshall Plan to rebuild Ukraine. This would open grain shipment from Russia and Ukraine to stave off starvation in Africa. This would open up exports from Russia to the world. It would send natural gas to Europe and end the recession in Germany. It would add Russian oil to the world market to hold down prices. Next I would contact Israel and tell them to declare that Hamas has been weakened to the point that they are no longer a threat and pull out the troops. This would be followed up with a rebuilding program in Gaza with the rich oil countries like Saudi Arabia leading the way.

Going green

The anti nuclear movement started in the 1970's in Germany. At that time Germany had 25 operating nuclear power plants. Going green was an emotional grass roots movement and was aimed at replacing fossil fuel with wind and solar. Determining if there was sufficient wind and sunshine was an after thought and it was discovered too late that there was a shortage of both. Germany's plan was to use wind and solar with a back up of natural gas and so they set about shutting down all their nuclear power plants along with their coal plants. When the Ukraine war caused Russia to cut off the supply of natural gas the German economy went into a recession and utility prices rose dramatically. Now Germany is building natural gas stations to receive gas from the USA. They are starting up their coal plants and wind mills are being dismantled to make way for new coal mine expansions. They have plans to restart 7 nuclear plants. The same thing is happening in the USA. 65 nuclear power plants were built before 1977 and only one since then. The green movement wants to shut them down along with the remaining 217 coal fired plants. Do the people who want to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar understand the problems associated with mining, processing and disposing of the materials needed for green energy.

Trump

When certain democrats say Trump wants to be a dictator here is what they mean. Trump’s enablers have outlined a plan for him to replace tens of thousands of career civil servants with MAGA loyalists and to take personal control of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute his political rivals. He is almost certain to use an old law — the Insurrection Act — to convert the military into his personal domestic police force. To challenge this go back to January 6, 2021. Trump supposedly wanted to say the election was not legal. He was still president and if he really believed that, why didn't he use the above plan. They say Trump will go after his enemies if he is reelected but when he won in 2016 he didn't go after Hillary. A good argument can be made that the democrats are the threat to democracy when they used the fake Trump/Russia collusion to spy on his administration and impeach him. In this election they tried to remove him from the ballot.

Gaza dock

President Biden like presidents before him want to support Israel. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle and they have a strong lobby in the US which represents not only votes but campaign contributions. Then Biden must contend with American Palestinian groups who also represent votes so the has taken a step designed to quell the protest. He will build a dock on the Mediterranean to bring in supplies by ship. Once again the government comes up with a quick decision without thinking things through. There are no trucks left in Gaza and there is no distribution system in Gaza and there will be no way to get the supplies to the place where they are needed. Will large mobs of people start streaming toward the beach to pick up supplies. Gaza is 25 miles long. When they get to the place where the supplies are will all two million people gather in one small area. They cannot take a weeks supply and go back to where they came from and a week later make the trip again.

War

It's time for those who are in favor of the West policy concerning Ukraine to ask themselves two questions. First do you want Russia to win and second do you want Ukraine to win. For those who answer yes to the first question they must recall their original reason for opposing Russia was the fear the if Russia wins they will be emboldened to move onto the next country. For those who answer yes to the second question they must recall that their original reasoning was if Ukraine wins that Russia will use nuclear weapons. This leads to a third question. Have your answers changed since the start of the war and secondly will your answers change in the future. If you come to the conclusion that maintaining the war with neither side winning is an acceptable outcome are you comfortable with that. Does a negotiated peace settlement seem more acceptable as time passes and if so will things get better by waiting. If none of the above fits your position what is your position. What is the governments position. What is the goal. How does this end.

Prices

In 1959 I was earning $5,000 and I bought a low cost house that cost $10,000. I was going to a local community college where the tuition was $600 per year for a full time student. My friends were buying new V8 Chevies for $3,000. Over these past 65 years inflation has averaged 3.8% which means my salary would be $56,000 and tuition would be $6,700 and a new car would cost $39,500. Today the average salary in MN is $52,000, the tuition for a community college is $6,000 and a new Chevy cost $31,000. In general prices today are the same as 65 years ago when taking into account inflation. Big exception is the cost of a home. My $10,000 house in today's world should cost $113,000. A two bedroom low cost home in MN today is $150,000. In 1960 the average family spent 17% of its income on food and today that figure is 9%. Gas in 1960 was 25 cents per gallon and today it should be $2.82 but cigarettes that were 25 cents now cost $8. The lesson from all this is to smoke less and eat more and forget about buying a house unless grandpa can help you.

Inflation

When Bush 41 was running for reelection he faced a brief recession in the spring of 1992 but recovery was on the way and by summer the economy was back to normal but that was too late. In addition he was faced with a third party candidate Ross Perot who many think took more voted from Bush than from Clinton. The upcoming election is called a change election because 70% of voters feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. The economy is recovering from the 9% inflation rate but will it be too late like it was in 1992. Finally will there be a third party candidate and if so will that person take votes from Trump. Inflation hurt Biden. It doesn't help to say inflation has come down. If bread cost $2 and you have 9% inflation bread cost $2.18. Then the next year you have 5% inflation then bread cost $2.29 and in the third year you have 3% inflation bread cost $2.36. When Biden says inflation is coming down the average person just sees the price is still up. The administration seems to think that saying inflation is down is the same are prices are down.

Election

How does the race between Trump and Biden stack up. In this unusual case where both candidates have been president we can compare results. For Biden he can claim the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act, the Infrastructure Bill and a share of the decoupling of China. For Trump is it NAFTA 2, Abraham Accords, energy independence and a share of decoupling. These are areas the effect foreign policy. On domestic policy Trump wins out. Border secure, low inflation, crime under control and no wars. If you are a voter who does not like Trump you pretty much ignore the above and go for things like saving democracy. If you don't like Biden you can hold your nose about Trumps character and vote for his policies.

Russia

The next time you hear experts making predictions consider the following. The West figured it would bring down the Russian economy by: Freeze all Russian bank accounts Cut assess to Swift (method banks use to transfer funds) Predicted a 15% shrink in Russia's GDP Money would flow out of Russia causing inflation Imports of needed raw materials would be cut off Industries would collapse Recession would set in Mass social unrest Run on the banks In fact what happened was that Russia boomed and Europe went into recession. Russia sold oil, natural gas and coal to China and India. Putin raised interest rates to stave off inflation and people kept their money in the bank. Russia had a large trade surplus which they used to build up their military which provided jobs to keep unemployment down. Russia cashed in their dollars and started using Yuan and the Ruble hit an eight year high. Russian GDP in 2023 rose to an all time high of $4.2 trillion dollars and grew at a 3.6% rate higher than any Western country. These are people who spend their lives studying this stuff and they all agreed they could control Russia.

Covid

The latest results show that 1,181,607 people in the United States died from Covid and 857,000 of those were over age 65. These were people who for the most part were no longer contributing to the economic growth of the country but in fact were considered a drain on resources. They were collecting social security and paying little to no taxes. Their contributions were of a different kind not related to GDP. While the government took measures to minimize the spread of Covid, things like vaccinations, wearing masks, social distancing and closing schools and businesses, they left the door open for easy transfer of the virus in one important area. They allowed millions of illegal migrants to cross the border and move inland to various locations around the country and these people were not vaxed. They were spreaders of the virus and there is no way to determine how many deaths they caused. These migrants were not adversely effected by the virus because they were mostly young healthy people but they were carriers. This policy or lack there of was an unforced error on the part of the government. They shut down entry to the US for all who were not vaxed except for the migrants crossing the southern border. They even kept out people who had natural immunity but let in the migrants. No one was held responsible for this error in judgment and if there were another pandemic, would the same thing be allowed to happen.

Ukraine

Is Victorian Nuland just the first rat to flee the sinking Ukraine War ship. The next to fall is Zelensky whose popularity has fallen from 90 plus percent when the war started to 84% ten months later and 62% in December of 2023. President Biden has stumbled into a way out of what is now being called Biden's war. The republicans will not fund the war unless Biden agrees to change his border policy. Biden can hold out and Ukraine will have to depend on Europe and Ukraine will slide slowly into defeat. Biden can then place the blame on the republicans. This is similar to his strategy to place the blame on the republicans for the border situation. The truly sad part about this whole affair is watching the country of Ukraine disintegrate into ashes while the West tries to weasel out of who is to blame. This war could have been prevented if the West would have agreed to keep Ukraine out of NATO but that would have meant no cash for the defense industry monster. You have to feed the beast for as Nuland said the money spent on weapons all goes to profits for defense contractors in America. It a win win.

Money

Victoria Nuland said on CNN that most of the Ukraine aid money goes right back to America to make weapons. This is not surprising to any Americans who understand how defense contractors profit from war. This is similar to major projects that are financed by the World Bank. Many of these projects are so large that only a few companies can handle them and these companies are mostly from the US. The United States was a leading force in the establishment of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) in 1944 and remains the largest shareholder of the World Bank Group today. The US is the largest contributor to the World Bank accounting for 17% of resources. The US paid in capital is $3.5 billion and US callable capital is $48 billion. Taxpayer money goes out to the Bank and comes back to US construction companies much like the money going to Ukraine

Nuland

Victoria Nuland is stepping down from her position at the state department. Ho hum. There are practically no Americans who ever heard of her so what's the big deal. Back in 2014 Viktor Yanukovich was the president of Ukraine and he was seen as a pro Russian leader. The West was not happy with this so using various covert activities a revolution took place and a pro Western Petro Poroshenko became the new president. Part of Nuland's responsibility in 2014 was to work with NATO and she was involved in the Ukraine revolution. Recent recorded phone conversations were released where Nuland was discussing who would lead Ukraine after the revolution and all of her suggested appointments were installed. Interestingly enough she worked in government for Bill Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden. She left government when Trump came in and returned after Trump left. She is known as a hawk when it comes to foreign policy. She pushed hard to keep Putin from gaining power and was considered strongly anti Russian. She pushed hard to get the West involved in helping Ukraine fight Putin as she lobbied for funds to help Ukraine. Why she is resigning at this time is not known.

War or peace

When Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO led by the US began sending aid to Ukraine. In the first month President Biden declared that Putin should be removed from power. The West began sending aid to Ukraine and that was followed by sanctions. As time passed more aid and more sanctions but neither seem to deter Putin. Two years into the war and the Russian economy is booming. The leaders in the West miscalculated. The moved without thinking things through. They assumed sanctions would cripple the Russia economy. They didn't take into account the fact that China and India would buy Russia oil in spite of the sanctions. They didn't count on Iran and North Korea offering military equipment to Russia. They thought they could use the US control of the currency to strangle Russia. The West pushed though one escalation after another and yet Russia gained in power and Ukraine lost power. Now they are beginning to realize the adverse effects of their miscalculations. They must either continue down this road or admit that they miscalculated. Is it time to swallow your pride and admit they screwed up or should they risk a wider war just to save face. Trump could come in and end the war because he is not responsible for what has transpired these past two years. For many people the thought of Trump ending this war is worse than continuing to escalate. For others ending the war would be worth putting up with Trump.

Vote

When I voted yesterday there was no one there but me so I assumed it would be a low turnout. The MN results were interesting. First off, MN is 46% democrat and 39% republican and 335,74 republicans voted and 239,725 voted indicating a enthusiasm spread. Trump got 69.1% of the vote but that means 31% did not vote for Trump. Biden got 70.6% of the vote but 19% voted uncommitted. The contest will be between Trump and Biden but this race is going to be close and will come down to turnout which means ballot harvesting.

Election

Biden's three major legislative accomplishment are the infrastructure bill and the Inflation Protection Act and the Chips Bill all of which are considered helpful to the economic growth of the country. Last night Biden said about Trump being reelected, “If Donald Trump returns to the White House, all of this progress is at risk,” Trump has made no mention of getting rid of these bills. Biden continued to about that Trump, “He is driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution, not the American people.” Trump has said his revenge will be economic growth. Trump did not go after Hillary when he won in 2016 but instead he concentrated on growing the economy. Many feel that this election will come down to harvesting ballots and not the issues.

Vote

The recent court ruling regarding removing Trump from the ballot in Colorado did not come as a surprise to most people. The surprise was the reaction by a few who expected this to be an impediment to Trumps reelection. The court reasoned that it could not allow any state to interfere in a federal election and this seemed to be what most people thought. For those who thought differently the surprise was what they said. Several commentators used words like, now it will be up to the voters. It was as if they planned to defeat Trump using the courts but when that failed they had to resort to plan B. Democracy is all about one man, one vote.

Rules

In looking back over the Covid most investigations involve where it started and how it spread but one area that was particularly surprising was the way people buckled under the various government demands. It started earlier after 9-11 when people willingly submitted to body search and taking off shoes at airports. When Covid hit people were okay with wearing masks, staying six feet apart, closing schools and businesses and required vaccinations. Added to this was the trend to limit speech based on claims of misinformation that turned out to be as flawed and the Covid rules. In retrospect many are surprised at how quickly the government power took control of people lives and many are surprised at how easy it was to get people to fall in line.

Nuland

Back in 2014 US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with Ukrainian US envoy Pyatt to discuss regime change in Ukraine. The US did not like the pro Russian leader and wanted a pro West leader. With the help of the CIA Viktor Yanukovych was replaced with Zelenskyy. This was denied by the state department but later a secret conversation between Nuland and Pyatt was released and published on the BBC. World leaders were upset for a while but it was soon forgotten when the next news cycle came along. Now Nuland is leading the charge for more aid to Ukraine. Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine but Nuland says, We need to prove him wrong. With the $60 billion supplemental that the Administration has requested of Congress, we can ensure Ukraine not only survives but thrives.With this support, in 2024, we will can help ensure Ukraine can continue to fight, to build, to recover, and to reform. This is just one more example of an un-elected bureaucrat calling the shots on US foreign policy. The disarming thing about this is that most Americans have never heard of Nuland

War

More news to be concerned about ATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine has a right to use its Western-supplied weapons to defend itself against Russia, even if that includes striking targets within Russia's borders. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned against Ukraine using its Western-supplied equipment to launch attacks on Russian territory, saying that doing so could risk escalating the conflict.  The slow march toward a bigger war continues.

War

Here is a wake up call. Senator Schumer returning from Ukraine on February 23,2024 Ukrainian officials told him (Schumer) that there was no evidence that with US aid, Ukraine could not win the war. But he said it would take a long term commitment from the US to help Ukraine gain the upper had against Russia. "From what they said, I would estimate a few years", Mr. Schumer said. Using the most optimistic understanding of the word "few" the world is looking at three more years.

Courts

The Supreme Court ruled today as expected when they voted 9 to 0 that Colorado court could not remove Trump from the ballot. This convoluted bit of irony resulted from the idea that in order to protect democracy from Trump he must be removed from the ballot. Other court cases still remain and one of the goals is to effect the election. Democrats say this is needed to save democracy and republicans say it is election interference. While the courts may not rule against Trump the cases will certainly interfere with his campaigning.

Gas

In the last 6 months the US price for natural gas has declined by half going from $3.50 per million BTU in October 2023 to $1.80 today. This is the result of increased supply. In 2022 gas reached an all time high of 94 trillion cubic feet (TCF) and in 2023 that increased to 103.7 TCF In 2022 the US exported a record high of 6.9 TCF and in 2023 that increased to 8.9 TCF. Since the export price is $7.50 this is highly profitable although the cost of liquefying the gas and shipping are included in the price. These shipments are invaluable to Europe which is no longer getting gas from Russia.

School

Most agree that our public education system is not performing up to where people would like. This is especially true with minority students. Many different programs have tried to mediate this problem but they have for the most part just upset the teaching methods. One option to offer a new approach is called school choice. This refers to programs and policies that let families use public money to access schools beyond their local option. Some options include public charter, magnet, private, parochial, online schools and homeschooling. Currently 32 states have some type of option. Minnesota has many options but all have some kind of limitation. For example MN claims parents can send their children to private school but only receive help in the form of refundable tax credits and only low income families qualify. The average tax credit is less than $300 and the average tuition for private school is over $4,000 so it is not much help. School districts receive about $7,000 from the state per student. This is about half the total cost per student and most of the remainder comes from property tax. If the state provided the full $7,000 for private schools many parents would chose that option and use their extra funds for transportation. This would result in closing many public schools and building many private schools or deals could be made to use the same buildings in some cases.

Iran

Iran could have developed an nuclear weapon many years ago but chose instead to use this as a bargaining chip and they have done so quite effectively. They used the threat to gain market share for their oil and have used much of the profits to finance various trouble spots including rebels in Syria, Iraq, Hamas, Hezbollah and most recently the Houthis in Yemen. In 2015 Iran reached a deal to curb its nuclear program for sanctions relief including on oil. In 2018 Trump said there would be no deal and all sanctions were snapped back. Iran's oil production was 3.8 million barrels per day in 2017 and it dropped to 2 million barrels in 2020. In 2021 Biden rescinded the Trump sanctions and Iran's oil production increased to 2.9 million barrels 2023. According to the US Treasury Department the US freed up $50 billion (not $150 billion as earlier reported) of Iranian funds that were frozen. While the Biden administration was doing this it was ignoring the opportunity to expand on the Abraham Accords and being Saudi Arabia into the fold. They were ready to make a deal in order to get US protection from Iran for their oil fields.

Climate

President Biden while campaigning and after his election spoke of climate change as a major problem. While taking to a voter he said, "I want you to look at my eyes. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We're going to end fossil fuel". On another occasion he said, "The only existential threat humanity faces, even things more frightening than an nuclear war, is global warning". In fact what has happened is US crude oil production jumps to record high of 13.3 million barrels per day U.S. Natural Gas Production Sets New Record High While natural gas continues to replace coal the US exported a record amount of coal Climate change is often talked about as a serious problem but the average person's life style does not reflect their concern. It's primary use is as a political issue but that is no longer the case. A recent survey shows climate as 17 out of 21 issues.

Migrants

When President Biden took office the border was secure. During the preceding twelve years which included eight years of Obama and four years of Trump illegal migrant crossings average 40,000 per month. In Biden's first year in office the number jumped to 120,000 and the second year 200,000 and in 2023 the number rose to 250,000. The question is what happened. When Biden took office he inherited the Trump border policy which was five parts. First Trump forced Mexico to close their border with Guatemala. Second he instituted the remain in Mexico policy. Third he stopped catch and release. Forth he started building the wall. Fifth he used forced deportations much like Obama. When Biden came in he canceled Trumps policies. Over the past three plus years since Biden took office more than 7 million illegal migrants have crossed into the US. This does not include the 1.7 million known got a ways and of course none of the unknown got a ways. During this time the government has lost track of 85,000 minors. There is no way to tell how many women and girls were molested and no way to tell how many criminals were among the migrants and no way to tell how much money the cartels made. During these years over 100,000 young people have died each year from fentenyl use and poisoning. Local public services including hospitals and schools have been over loaded . None of these things were recognized by the press as problems until Texas started sending migrants to big cities and then everyone was awakened to the problem and now it is a serious threat to Biden's reelection. It may be too late politically but it is not too to solve the problem. Biden need only to reinstate the policies he ended when he took office.

Food supply

In the past 100 years the world's population has increased four fold going from 2 billion to 8 billion and the main reason is the increase in food production and that comes primarily from biotechnology and fertilizer. Since 1950 corn yields have increased from 40 bushels per acre to 180 bushels. Food production increased more than four fold which allowed for the population increase. In 1950 the average family spent 30% of their budget on food and today that number is 11%. Today 80% of all fertilizer is made from natural gas and over the next few years the price of natural gas will be rising and demand outpaces supply.