War

In early 1965 the US sent civilian contractors to Vietnam. The United States has sent contractors to Vietnam for a variety of reasons, including to build infrastructure, to provide humanitarian assistance, and to support the military Here is a news item from yesterday The Biden administration will allow U.S. military contractors to deploy to Ukraine — a policy reversal aimed at helping Kyiv maintain complex Western-provided weapons systems, a defense official told POLITICO. These are Americans who are teaching Ukrainians how to use weapons to kill Russians. Through 1966 the military and political landscape was flooded with complications. From the first few U.S. military advisers Eisenhower had sent to Vietnam in early 1955 Is this more mission creep.

Trump

I see two categories for Trump. First are the things that will probably be on Trumps agenda which are securing the border, renewing the Trump tax cuts, keeping tariffs and reducing regs to help reshoring, installing a 15% tax on companies that make and sell in the US, maximize fossil fuel production, expose the new green deal as more of a social program than climate plan, remove the tax on TIPS and overtime, pushing DA's to put repeat criminals in jail, bringing back bonding and stop the reduction of felonies to misdemeanors, re installing the sanctions on Iran, restart the Abraham Accords, offering maximum support to Israel and a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war. This is a pro growth agenda but it will cause inflation unless the productivity increases in the newly built manufacturing plants off set. Second is my wish list for Trump. He should encourage nuclear, in particular small thorium reactors, to fight climate change, he should offer the EV's cash incentives for natural gas cars and trucks. The average life of a car is 12 years so it will take that long to replace most.

Ukriane

Trump has pledged to seek a peaceful settlement to the Ukraine war. He will try to have sit down with Zelenskyy and Putin but not together. First he will meet with Zelenskyy and say if you don't agree to a settlement the US will no longer offer assistance. The he will meet with Putin and offer settlement options. If Putin refuses the US will send what ever is needed to assure that Russia loses the war. If he agrees the war will end with Putin keeping Crimea and the Donbas region. He will bring his troops home a winner. Then NATO with begin the process of rebuilding Ukraine like the Marshall Plan when the US rebuilt Germany. The US will bring Russia into the West using trade and technical help. The gas pipeline to Europe will reopen and Germany will be able to save its economy. Russian and Ukraine exports will reopen and grain will get to the people in Africa before they starve.

Bureaucracy

The 1984 Chevron Case was overturned and set the stage to rein in the power of the bureaucracy. The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a 40-year-old precedent that has been a target of the right because it is seen as bolstering the power of “deep state” bureaucrats. The case stated that if the law is not clear the regulatory agencies can interpret. This gave too much power to the agencies and they used this power to gain control. Politicians often run for office with the promise to pay for their new programs by reducing the fat in government. Trump can use Musk as an outside consultant to review how these agencies operate and recommend changes. This will put the power back in the hands of the people's elected officials (congress) instead of these un-elected bureaucrats. How Musk dealt with Twitter when he took over is a start.

Immigrants

The subject of how to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants is once again in the news. The first step is to deport all of those with criminal records. If their countries refuses to take them back then the US will cut ties with that country. This should be enough to change their minds. If not then these people will be sent to jail for a time depending on the crime. The next step is to change the individual tax identification number (ITIN) card to allow the person to work. These people will be asked to come forward to their local government office to get the card. At that time they will be told that after five years on this card they will be eligible for a green card. After five years with the green card they will be able to apply for citizenship with the understanding they meet the requirement for citizenship which includes proficiency in English. The ITIN cards will be issued to the immigrants based on their time in the country with the longest time being the first to qualify. Meanwhile the border should be closed until the government catches up. Another part of the plan includes raising the number of legal immigrants from 650,000 to two million per year from Europe, Asia and Africa. These people will be chosen by their education and job skills and selected based on the needs of the country.

Rare earths

A recent discovery of rare earth metals in Wyoming could supply all of the US needs for many years. To take advantage of this the country must not only mine the ore but must process and refine the ore and set up recycling and a safe way to dispose of the used products. Once the metals are being produced they must allocated by priority. They must be used for electronics like computers and phones and for defense and not for wind and solar and EV's. Wind and solar will be replaced by small nuclear reactors and EV's first by changing out gasoline cars to natural gas cars and the $7,500 subsidy for EV's should be applied to natural gas cars. This will have the same positive effect on climate change that replacing coal with natural gas did on power plants. These changes can begin immediately.

Votes

There is a lot of talk about the election but one thing that is puzzling that no one has brought up is the total votes. 2016 Trump 63 million and Clinton 66 million 2020 Trump 74 million and Biden 81 million 2024 Trump 73 million and Harris 68 million How did the democratic vote count drop from 81 million to 68 million in just four years. It seems that the former Biden voters did not vote for Trump but chose to stay home.