Decider

A number of news groups have said that Biden hasn't been running the government over the past year so he can continue with his inner circle running things. This is somewhat misleading because most leaders rely on their close associates to help them with major decisions but that is not the end of the story. It is rare when all of your advisers agree so it still comes down to the buck stops here or as Bush said he is the decider. This means that many important decisions will be made by Biden.

Harris

Identity politics, like many things starts out with good intentions but ends up with unintended consequences. A case in point is VP Kamala Harris. Biden campaigned saying he had four Black women on his vice president list and he chose Harris. She has under performed and many would like to replace her but they are caught in the identity politics trap. Even if they found a White and/or male who was far more qualified they could not replace Harris. This problem will come to the forefront if Biden decides to step down. Polls show that Harris has a lower approval rating than Biden and less chance of defeating Trump. This poses a dilemma. If Trump will end democracy he must be defeated at all cost. Does that allow the democrats to replace a Black female with a White male if the White male has a better chance to beat Trump.

Misinformation

As a young person I was taught that words can hurt people, words like nigger, and that it was improper to use such words. I was never told that using such words was illegal and free speech allows the use of such language. As time past more words were added to the list and it was famously satirized by Geroge Carlin in his seven dirty words comedy skit. Over the past ten or so years this has changed and in today's world a person can lose their job for using the wrong words. This type of thing is so common it has a name called cancel culture. This has escalated from words to phrases and statements which are referred to as misinformation. People are banned from social media sites for such misstatements and they are criticized and ridiculed and publicly shamed. These are all attempts to shut people up and thus attacks on free speech. There are many examples of these actions and one is the case of Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya who was blacklisted for questioning how school lockdowns might affect children. He was surprised that Twitter would take on itself the suppression of scientific discussion. This happens on a regular basis when politics gets involved with science and science always loses.

Nuclear

The Biden administration is committed to the New Green Deal which means they believe the answer to Climate Change is wind, solar and EV's. They, much like the national press, seem unaware of the environmental hazards posed by the mining, processing and disposing of the materials needed for the Green Deal. Trump on the other hand understands that nuclear is the safe long term solution. During Trump's term he asked his Energy Secretary, Dan Brouillette, to assemble a nuclear energy working group to find ways to expand the US nuclear industry and in January 2019 Trump signed the Bipartisan Nuclear Energy Law. Most people are not aware of this because the press seemed uninterested. The special interest groups still hold the power to down play nuclear but that is slowly changing and as more information comes forth, the advantages of nuclear will become more apparent. A second Trump administration would certainly help to take the politics out of climate change and move the country and the world toward nuclear.

Convention

The odds are that Biden will be the nominee but if he decided to step down it would be easiest for the party if he did so after the convention. If Biden steps down after the August convention, the 435 members of the Democratic National Committee would choose a new candidate. The members would meet in a special session to select a nominee. This would avoid the mess of a brokered convention. Who are these members. They are divided equally between men and women as well as various constituency groups including labor leaders, LGBTQ representatives, and racial minorities. Of the total, 75 are appointed at-large by the chair, while the rest are elected in their respective states. A brokered convention would be a free-for-all of sorts between the Democratic heavyweights vying for the job. Candidates would have to get signatures from 600 convention delegates to be nominated. There are expected to be some 4,672 delegates in 2024, including 3,933 pledged delegates and 739 automatic or superdelegates,

Terms

Many talking heads are asking the question, how can Biden look so different at the State of the Union speech as opposed to the debate. Experts and people who have experience working with a close relative who suffered from dementia understand that there are good days and bad days. The long term diagnosis is that the number of bad days will increase and there is no going back. The solution will be for Biden to resign before his second term is over. If he resigns after two years then Harris can serve out the two plus 8 more. This would be the likely scenario.

Trump

The recent presidential debate has brought my ability to see both sides of an issue into question. Several of the pundits complained that one of Biden's failures was his inability to remind people of what things were like when Trump was president. Trump did not send anyone to prison even though many thought Hillary Clinton's actions warranted some investigation. Trump felt that the 2020 election was rigged but he followed the law and left office peacefully. For the first time in many years the working people saw their wages increase faster than the cost of living. Minorities and women saw the lowest unemployment rates in history. Inflation was under 2%, thirty year mortgages at 2.5%, gas under three dollars, energy independence, migrant border crossings at low levels, crime under control, a plan for peace in the Middle East and no wars. If Trump is elected he will follow the plans that he used when he was president the last time. He will increase fossil fuel production to the maximum, close the border by bringing back remain in Mexico, stopping the catch and release and demanding that Mexico secure their border with Guatemala. He will reduce regulations to help companies reshore, stop forcing people to buy EV's, move away from wind and solar and toward nuclear, negotiate a peace in Ukraine, demand that European countries take on more of their own defense, continue his plans to increase import taxes on goods from China, back Israel to end Hamas and begin the process of deporting illegal migrants. I thought it was good strategy for Trump to remind people of what things were like when he was president. The liberals fear that Trump will end democracy, bring back Jim Crow, put his enemies in prison and become a dictator for life but he didn't do any of these things when he was in office the last time.

China

China has been the manufacturing center for many years but that is changing and reshoring is happening throughout the world. Where will the new industrial bases be located. Many will move to other parts of Southeast Asia, places like South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam but a goodly portion will come to North America. This area has a strong consumer base, a young workforce and the existing infrastructure. The US economy is the biggest in the world and as the cost of transportation and concerns about supply chains grow, the US has the great advantage of having buyers close to producers. North America will have economic expansion not seen since the 1950's.

First Solar

Everyone remembers Solyndra the solar panel company that got $570 million from the government and then went bankrupt. What happened to the money was never determined. How many Solyndra's are hidden inside the Infrastructure bill. Biden campaigned saying he would spend 445 billion on climate change and the solar industry was ready. The new Solyndra is a company called First Solar. This company donated $2 million to Democrats in 2020 including $1.5 million to Biden's bid for the White House. After he won they spent another $2.8 million lobbying. Since then, First Solar's stock price has doubled and profits have soared thanks to the $10 billion dollars in subsidies. Pushing the Green Deal is a profitable pursuit for many different groups.

Inflation

The news reports that 16 Nobel Prize winning economist have predicted that if Trump is elected then the inflation rate will increase and they are correct. The country is currently undergoing an economic growth spurt led by reshoring which involves the doubling of the industrial base over the next ten years. With this economic expansion will come inflation and that is the case regardless of who is president. This is an example of misleading information by leaving out part of the story. While either Trump or Biden can effect this expansion neither will have a major impact. This roaring economy will dwarf any actions by the president.

Debate

As the debate approaches the strategy's of both sides are coming to light. Trump's theme will be are you better off now than you were four years ago. He will emphasize home mortgage rates, cost of food and gas, border crossings, street crime and wars. Biden's theme will be Trump. He will talk about destroying democracy, abortion, January 6, Jim Crow 2.0, putting enemies in prison, and anti immigrants. Trump will lean toward policy and Biden will lean toward personality. Post debate polls will show little effect as most people watching will only hear what they want to hear. Then the news will shift to the next debate.

Difference

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lighting and a lighting bug. On the news today they were pointing out the difference between an illegal who comes into the country and rapes a child and a mother who crosses the border with her child to escape poverty. That is acceptable difference. It is similar to the difference between an abortion in the first trimester and a late term abortion.

MMT

Monetizing $5.2 trillion in COVID relief increases our money supply by 27% and comes on top of $4.5 trillion in QE. Add another $2 trillion in planned infrastructure spending and we have $13 trillion in new money, which is a 35% increase in paper money in circulation and 60% of GDP. This has resulted in a 20% rise in prices in the past four years. This should put an end to the idea of Modern Monetary Theory(MMT) which said that the government can just print up money to pay for what it needs. To be fair MMT does say it only works when you don't have full employment and over the past two years the rate has been 3.5% which many say is full employment.

Election news

As the Blue Collar workers turned toward Trump the coastal liberals look more upper white college educated and the question becomes will they lose the poor vote. Too many liberals see the middle of the country as low information voters who suffer from racism and homophobia. This is one of the reasons why liberal talk radio has not been successful. It is difficult to hide a prejudice when you are on air two or three hours a day. Next up is the apparent erosion of the Black and Hispanic voters as they trend toward Trump. Will the liberal coalition of bureaucrats, main stream news, social media, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and big business hold off the new Republican Party. The answer may come from the ballot harvesters. Early voting is available in 47 states ranging from 3 days to more than 30 days. Available more than 30 days (6 states) Available between 21 and 30 days (7 states) Available between 15 and 20 days (5 states) Available between 8 and 14 days (23 states) Available between 3 and 7 days (6 states and DC)

Coxey

It is said the history repeats itself and a review of Coxey's Army in 1894 is a timely example. It was in the second year of a four year depression that swept across the country and a populist figure, businessman Jacob Coxey, organized a march on Washington, the first of its kind. His plan was to have the federal government hire people at $1.50 per day to build infrastructure. He had the masses of unemployed mostly low and middle income people on his side but he was opposed by business, government and the news media. The march was called the Army of the Commonwealth in Christ. President Cleveland said while the people must patriotically support the government it was not the governments job to extend relief to individuals.Trump could be the modern day equivalent of Jacob Coxey. Trump is an outsider who has gathered the support of the low and middle income group and he is opposed by the bureaucracy, the democrats which are trending toward being the party of white, college educated professionals, the national press, big business, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. At first Coxey was treated as a joke by the press but as they marched, citizens of city after city joined the marchers. The press labeled the marches as lazy, unwilling to work and even criminals. The respectable class saw the marches as rabble-rousers. It exposed a difference based on class. Coxey planned to give a speech about using government to hire people to build infrastructure but as he started the police arrested him an charged him with walking on the grass. He was sentenced to twenty days in jail. Some of his supporters were arrested and put on the chain gang and the whole march fell apart.

Abotion

Abortion will be an issue in the upcoming election and it is time to take a deep dive into the issue. First off scientist agree that life begins at conception so an abortion is ending a life. The distinction is in the name. In abortions the life is called a fetus. Only about 12% of abortions are performed for medical reasons while 80% fall into two categories. Either the mother is not emotionally ready or the mother is not financially ready. Abortion is also race based since Black women only represent 7% of the population and they have 34% of the abortions. The same can be said for Hispanic women who represent 10% of the population and have 26% of the abortions. Since 1973 there have been 64 million known abortions and 27 million have been to Black women. During the entire slave period only 4 million slaves were brought to the United State. These slaves came from West Central Africa where today half live in poverty and people are mostly landless, and suffer from exploitation. Were it not for the slave trade there would be very few Black Americans. The number of abortions per capita has been declining. In 1980 the rate was one abortion for each 78 women and last year is was one for each 176 women. In addition 63 percent of abortions were by using oral medicine last year. These trends are expected to continue and someday in the future almost all abortions will be a private affair in the women's home. The issue will be like old generals. The don't die they just fade away.

Murder

Secretary Mayorkas when asked about the mother of five who was murdered by an alleged illegal he responded by saying it was the criminal who did the deed who is responsible not the system. This is true the same way that the criminal is responsible for a shooting murder not the gun.

Ukraine

In discussions concerning the War in Ukraine the unity surrounding NATO's partnership with Ukraine is often in the news. The 32 NATO countries have publicly condemned the Russian invasion and the members of the European Union have joined in with their support of NATO. While this show of unity is a positive result for the West what is often overlooked is the new axis of evil that has developed between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. These countries have been helping Putin by buying his oil and natural gas and supplying him with military equipment. This is just one more example of how the Ukraine War has escalated over the past two years.

Independents

Independent voters see the upcoming election as a mess and two groups of politicians who put party ahead of country. The see the democrats calling the republicans cultist and the republicans saying the democrats are infected with Trump derangement syndrome. They are tired of personal attacks and negative ads. They want their wages to increase faster than inflation. They want safe neighborhoods. They want a secure border and they want to resolve the war in Ukraine. They want the parties to stop blaming each other and get the job done. They view cultural disputes as luxury items that can be attended to once the basics problems are solved.

Free

Clear Captions There is an ad on TV selling a phone with the voice printed out on a screen so someone with a hearing problem can read the words that are spoken. The ad says No insurance needed No cost Paid for by a government program. That expresses the view that many people have about government programs that they are free.

Education

Blacks have voted democrat since FDR but it became more extreme since the Civil Rights Bill in 1965. Polls show that this is changing particularly among Blacks under age 50. The big concern centers around education. The country has been unable or some say unwilling to close the education gap. What starts with education spreads to poverty which leads to crime. Polls show that many inner city Black parents would like to send their children to schools in the suburbs but there are transportation problems. The country not only needs school choice but school buses must be available to take the students to the burbs. Some are more cynical and say that the democratic party sees keeping racism alive as a political advantage.

Plea deal

This is from one of many news reports on the first Hunter plea deal. A funny thing happened in the courtroom of the US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika lask week. Hunter Biden's lawyers and the Department of Justice tried to pull a fast one on her, but she refused to play her designated part, declining to "rubber stamp" an intentionally opaque plea agreement. The judge realized that the plea deal included not only the current charges against Hunter Biden but absolved him of all future charges. The unanswered question is why would the Justice Department agree to such a deal. It became quite clear to Noreika that the government was agreeing not to prosecute Biden for additional crimes as a condition of his guilty plea to the two tax charges. It is this type of activity that causes conservatives to question the Justice Department.

Sense

Some commentators are starting to refer to the upcoming election as a common sense election. They see the passing of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, men in women's sports, gender operations on children, drag dancers in elementary schools, cancel culture and DEI. Voters want to get back to the basics of economy, safe neighborhoods and no wars. Public policies that promote reshoring and putting repeat criminals in jail will go a long way to meet these goals.

Peace

It is time for some serious discussions about Ukraine. Putin has proposed that Ukraine cede 18% of its land in the Donbas area along with a guarantee that Ukraine will not be invited to join NATO and in return he will pull out of Ukraine. The West has proposed to spend the next ten years sending aid to Ukraine and an invitation to join NATO. The stage is set for a negotiated peace. Russia gets the Russian speaking areas in Ukraine (Donbas is 9% of Ukraine) and the West agrees not to allow Ukraine into NATO and Putin ends the war. This is the same deal that could have been the day the war started. In the past two years Ukraine has sustained $152 billion dollars in damage to the infrastructure including 210,000 buildings, 19,100 multifamily units and 142,800 single family homes. Additional damage to transportation, industry, energy and agriculture. The Ukrainian people have suffered 125,000 casualties while 6.5 million have left the country. 50% of Americans want to send aid to Ukraine, 70% want a negotiated settlement and 80% do not want to send troops to Ukraine and therein lies the rub. NATO started helping Ukraine because they feared that if Putin wasn't stopped he would bring back the old Soviet Union and take over all of Eastern Europe. However these same Americans do not want to sent US troops to Ukraine. The war has exposed the ineptness of the Russian military and cost them many lives and Putin is 71 and his country is in a serious demographic decline with 1.8 children per woman when 2.1 is needed to replace those who die. In addition 70,000 young men have died and 100,000 have been injured and 300,000 have left the country. It will be generation, if ever, before Russia recovers from this fiasco. NATO negotiators must set aside their ego's and get down the business of peace.

TIPS

Part of the Reagan Tax Bill of 1981 included taxing of TIPS. Trump has proposed that if elected he will ask congress to rescind the taxing of TIPS. This means that people will be able to keep more of what they earn. This as opposed to canceling student debt which means that money will be taken from those who earn it and given to those who don't. People who earn TIPS are mostly in the low to middle income groups and this helps to close the income gap. Among the more than 6 million people who reported tips on their returns that year, taxpayers disclosed nearly $6,250 on average. This doesn't mean that people will save $6,250 on their tax bill it means they will save the tax on $6,250 which would be about $600 per year for most people.

What

One of the TV analyst came up with a simple way to describe the upcoming presidential election. He called it, what is to what if. What is refers to the facts surrounding the election what you come to when you asked the question, are you better off now than four years ago. This answers the question what is. Two percent home mortgages vs seven percent. Food prices up 20%, gas up 50 %, illegal border crossing up from 40,000 per month to 200,000 and two wars. The what if is the democratic election plan. What if Trump puts his enemies in prison, what if Trump puts Blacks in chains and what if Trump ends democracy. When Trump was president he did none of this. He didn't go after Hillary. The Biden administration has charged 11 Trump associates with crimes and imprisoned some of them. Next they impeached Trump twice and convicted him on a felony charge. This election is about things that happened, the what is and things that might happen the what if.

War

Biden's war strategy is consistent between Ukraine and Palestine. In both cases he is slow to send arms and demands how the arms be used. It's a non war war. The US just agreed to a ten year deal with Ukraine to supply them with what ever they need to defeat Russia, This added to the two year war brings us up to 12 years. Are we headed toward a 20 year war like Afghanistan. Every escalation leads us closer to US troop involvement. The war has cost American taxpayer $175 billion in the first two year. Does that mean $1.75 trillion over the next ten. One of the best reasons to consider voting for Trump is that he will negotiate and end to this war.

Debate

With the upcoming debate in the news, the liberal media is suggesting that the first question to Trump be, do you agree with the 2020 election results. The answer should be, no I do not agree but I have begrudgingly accepted the results. In life things do not always go your way but you learn to play the hand you are dealt. I was knocked down in 2020 but I am up and running in 2024. One of the main reasons that Trump is leery of the 2020 election results is that in 2016 he received 63 million votes and won and in 2020 he received 74 million votes and lost. The surprise was that Biden got 82 million votes and this is partly because of ballot harvesting. There are 100 million people who are eligible to vote who did not vote. Harvesters get the names of these non voters and go to their homes with a registration form and a ballot. They help these people to fill out the registration forms and then help them with the ballot and even mail in the forms. The democrats had a better ground game to harvest but in 2024 both parties are improving their ground game. The concern is that by helping people fill out the form there is an opportunity to influence them. There is no way to determine if anything illegal happened because recounting ballots would not change the results. Because this election is expected to be close the side that has the best harvesting plan will probably win.

Constitution

The checks and balances in the constitution are designed to have the three branches of government self police. One of these ways is when the congress oversees the actions of the executive. Yesterday the congress voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for his refusal to turn over the Hur tapes. The congress can charge but the congress cannot enforce. Thus it will be up to the Justice Department to enforce the contempt charge by arresting their boss. Congress can have the Sargent at Arms in the house arrest Garland but that can only happen if Garland come to the house. They can go for impeachment but that takes 67 votes in the senate. This means that the executive can do most anything and the congress cannot do anything about it.

Venezuela

Socialism has been tried many times throughout history and it failed. While it promised prosperity, equality, and security, it delivered poverty, misery, and tyranny. The latest example is Venezuela. The discovery of massive oil deposits in Lake Maracaibo during World War I[65] proved pivotal for Venezuela and transformed its economy from a heavy dependence on agricultural exports. It prompted a boom that lasted into the 1980s; by 1935, Venezuela's per capita gross domestic product was Latin America's highest.[66] Gómez benefited handsomely from this, as corruption thrived, but at the same time, the new source of income helped him centralize the state and develop its authority. The development of the oil fields was done by foreign companies and in 1976 Venezuela nationalized the oil industry. Many of the engineers left the country and this led to mismanagement. Populist leaders gained control and promised to redistribute the wealth acquired from the oil companies. A country that once boasted high education levels, cultural achievements and a thriving oil industry, has managed to turn a winning hand into a losing one. Leaders like Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro helped lead the country down the path of collapse. Without skilled labor or a major oil company to step in, Venezuela could become a net importer of oil within a year. Once the oil goes, so does everything else. We're talking economic woes, societal dislocations and famine.

Covid

Over the past ten years a new medical phrase has entered the vernacular. It is called gain of function research. It means taking a relatively harmless virus and by changing its DNA turning it into a virus dangerous to humans. The idea is not to wait until natural selection creates such a dangerous bug but to create it in advance and then develop a vaccine to neutralize the bug. A moratorium was placed on this research in 2014 but in 2017 it was rescinded. Later research of this type was carried out at the lab in Wuhan, China. Since the Covid first appeared in Wuhan this has led to stating that the virus came from the lab. This seemed more logical than saying it came from a meat market in Wuhan. This started a conspiracy that the US government was funding the Wuhan research and the virus was accidentally released. This led to a cover up to protect the US government research project. Later the NIH admitted that gain of function was occurring at the Wuhan lab and that NIH was funding the project. The Wuhan lab did not use the proper safety procedures and was thus partially responsible. It would see prudent to find out the origin of the Covid before the next pandemic hits.

Science

When scientist are confronted with new information that no one understands they present possible explanations to be investigated. When an individual comes up with an idea it is important that he not believe this until it is proven by other theories developed by other scientist. This makes sure he is not drawn into the trap of setting a predetermined course to reach a predetermined conclusion. This is a good procedure to follow in other areas of life.

Lab leak

Over the past four years a lot of misinformation and outright lying has been uncovered about the pandemic and one of the most egregious centers around the origin of the virus. On January 31, 2020 a leading virologist, Kristian Andersen, sent an email to Fauci saying, One has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features looked engineered. Eddie, Bob and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory. The other three are Eddie Holmes, Bob Garry and Mike Farzan all virologists whom Fauci knew on a first name basis. Two hours later at midnight Fauci emailed his second in command Dr Hugh Auchincloss saying it was essential that they meet in the morning. At 3 AM Fauci sent an email to Dr Robert Kadlec at Health and Human Services and attached an article arguing against the lab leak and for natural evolution. He said, Bob this came out today and gives us a balanced view. Within days, after further discussions with Fauci Andersen and friends came to a different conclusion. They evolved from thinking the virus came from a lab and instead promoted the idea that it was from natural evolution. Discussions regarding the lab leak were banned on social media and scientist dismissed the lab leak theory as they feared a ban on high risk experiments.

Trial

Manhatten DA Vance was criticized for not charging Trump's children and Harvey Weinstein and decided not to run for reelection. This opened the door for Bragg to run. Bragg promised to go after accused criminals and did go after Weinstein who was acquitted on appeal. Bragg said, "it is a fact that I have sued Trump more than a hundred times". At first Bragg refused to prosecute Trump on the 2016 case where Trump was accused of paying hush money to a porn star. Two prosecutors in his office were upset about this decision and resigned in protest. The statute of limitations of five years had run out on the hush money charge and it was a misdemeanor. He later upgraded the charge to paying the money to conceal another crime. The indictment centers on allegations that Trump falsified internal business records at his private company while trying to cover up an effort to illegally influence the 2016 election by arranging payments that silenced claims potentially harmful to his candidacy. This was a felony and Trump was convicted. Questions about the trial have come up. First the judge was a contributor to the Biden campaign. Second the jury was selected from the voter rolls and 85% of Manhattan's voted democrat. 96 prospective jurors were called and half were dismissed because they said they could not be fair. After investigating the case The Federal Election Commission chose not to prosecute. Two major Democratic clients of the daughter of Judge Merchant's raised $93 million dollars on the case. Matthew Colangelo, former prosecutor in the Biden Justice Department shows up as an assistant DI in the Trump trail. All of these things placed a pall over the trial and led to quoting Lavrentiy Beria, the ruthless secret police chief under Stalin who said, show me the man and I'll show you the crime. Most agree that if Trump had not been running for president this charge would not have been brought. The result is that most Americans were not influenced by the verdict.

Oil

US oil production averaged 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023, breaking the previous and global record of 12.3 million barrels set in 2019. This along with near zero economic growth in Europe are the main reasons that gasoline at the pump has not reached four dollars. This is an election year win for Biden. In addition the reshoring has boosted economic growth in the US which leads to low unemployment. Inflation will remain over the next few years.

Hunter

The Hunter Biden gun trial is underway and it is a waste of time and money. There is however an alleged crime against Biden in California. Biden is accused of a four year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in federal taxes. In December 2023 he was charged with three felony counts related to his failure to file and pay taxes. The question is will he be charged with not paying California State income tax. A sitting president cannot pardon a state crime. That is left up to the governor but it is assumed that the governor will probably followed the president.

Houthis

The Houthis's have disappeared from the news but they are still operating. Most of the ships are taking the longer route around Africa. Not all ships however. Oil tankers from Arab countries are allowed to pass. Russia cargo ships are allowed to pass and the Chinese pay for protection which allows shipments to China. This is an example of modern warfare. A small country with a few outlaw leaders using drones can upset world trade. This shows how deglobalization can help protect a country since they won't depend on foreign trade.

Border

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. set forth an ambitious immigration agenda in the early days of the Biden-Harris administration, committing both to reverse harmful policies implemented by the Trump administration and to revitalize the US immigration system more broadly. In his first 100 days in office, President Biden articulated his immigration and refugee protection goals and reversed many of his predecessor’s policies in a series of executive actions. He also raised the refugee admissions cap for FY 2021 and endorsed the US Citizenship Act of 2021, which would represent the most sweeping immigration reform legislation in decades and create the largest legalization program in US history.

Energy

The discussions about the energy needed by the grid to accommodate the need when the country uses all EV's is misunderstood. Energy is a commodity like gallons of gasoline or kilowatt hours (kWh). Power is the amount of energy that can be delivered in one second. On the grid, power demand and supply fluctuate during the day. Power is generated at the power plant and measured in kW while energy is delivered at the charging station and measured in kWh. At peak times the demand is for power not energy. Energy is what does useful work like moving a car or cooling a home. Power is the rate that energy flows. We don't need to increase the power of the grid to charge more cars but we need to produce more energy. In physics, energy equals power times time. E=Pt. If a charging station provides 10kW of power and the car charges for one hour then the energy is 10 kWh. The higher the power the faster the EV will charge. Solar panels and windmills create power much like fossil fired and nuclear plants. It changes to energy when the power is used such as driving an EV. The plan is to add power to the grid from solar and wind as the energy used by EV's increases.

Nuclear

Once the world comes to understand that the answer to climate change is nuclear power the question will then be should it be uranium or thorium. Uranium comes out of the ground as two isotopes, U 235 and U 238. The U 235 is the useful one but it is only .7% of the total so the uranium must be enriched and that takes time, machines and money. Thorium comes ready to use.

Money

Years ago I used to watch 60 Minutes every Sunday and I remember one show in particular. Mike Wallace was interviewing a Miami banker when he asked if a man comes in with at $200,000 cash deposit does that ring any alarms and the banker said no why should it. Not much has changed since then. In many big cities in the US the money laundering continues. In Houston for example, many Mexican citizens are buying homes that cost between $10 and $20 million dollars and paying cash. These transactions occur without any investigation as to where the money came from.

Election

For the first time in my life the upcoming presidential election will provide me with two candidates both of whom have experience being president. The logical way to approach this is to compare the records of the two but that is not what will happen. Trump will gladly talk about his four years in the White House. He will boast about his economy, the border, tough on crime, no wars, breakthrough in the Middle East and sanctions on Iran. In other words he will ask the question are you better off now than you were four years ago. Biden on the other hand will talk about Trump. It will start by exposing Trump as a convicted felon followed by Trump will end democracy, promote Jim Crow 2.0, put Blacks back in chains, interfere with voting, make abortions illegal and Trump will be a dictator who will be president for life. The major news media will be satisfied with this approach. The debates will mirror this. The first questions will be to Trump. Will you admit that you lost the 2020 election. Will you admit you encourage the January 6 event. Will you admit you said you will be a dictator. Should being convicted felon prevent you from being president. The second half of the debate will be on questions surrounding the border and the economy.

Thorium

The most common source of thorium is an ore called monazite which contains up to 12% thorium phosphate, but on average is 6-7%. Monzite is found in many places and estimated to be about 16 million tons which means one million tons of thorium. Nearly 100% of thorium can be achieved by a process called selective precipitation. There is a large vein of thorium in Idaho. Thorium is significantly more abundant than uranium and this makes thorium much more adequate for long term energy sustainability. All thorium can be used as extracted in a reactor. Thorium is considerably more environmentally friendly and a safer fuel source than uranium. One pound of thorium has the energy equivalent of 10 million pounds of coal but is carbon free.

Russia

Less than 48 hours after NATO gave Ukraine the right to use those donated weapons against Russian targets within Russia, Ukrainians opened up on Russian military assets in and around the Russian city of Belgorod. So far Russia has not responded but it still means an escalation.