Ginsberg

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice, who at age 85 has announced that she plans on being on the job for at least five more years. We octogenarians want all the young whipper snappers to know that we can still contribute. Go girl go!

Spying

A commentator on the news yesterday asked why Secretary Pompao was trying to encourage the people of Iran to revolt when he is upset over Russia's interference in our election. He doesn't seem to remember about the way the United States interfered with countries during the cold war. We installed and uninstalled leaders around the world, some of whom were dictators. Recall places like the Dominican Republic, Chili, El Salvador, Viet Nam, Cuba and many more. Remember our Secretary to the United Nations Jean Kirkpatrick who said he may be a dictator but he is our dictator. When people expressed surprise that Russia was trying to interfere in our elections, it reminded me of the people who were surprised to find out that Hollywood moguls like Harvey Weinstein would take advantage of upcoming starlets. Let's not forget how the US used the stuxnet virus to attack the Iranian nuke program and later it was used against the North Korean nuke program. Spying and high tech attacks are part of the world we live in.

Demographics

Over the past 40 years demographers have predicted that democrats will have an edge since most of the new growth in population is represented by the browning of America. While this theory suffered a set back in the 2016 election the trend continues. If this is true it will mean that the democratic party will regain and hold its majority in the house of representatives but the reverse will occur with the senate. The population is shifting toward urban areas and experts predict that in the near future 70% of people will live in 15 states which means that 30% of the people will live in 35 states. Since each state has two senators the shift will be toward the republicans who represent the majority in the lower population states.

Pakistan

The election in Pakistan finds a relative unknown named Imran Khan in the lead and most likely the winner. He was a former soccer star who was a well known celebrity and only recently got active in politics. He ran on the promise to clean up the good old boy network in the federal government and he is a favorite of the military and the religious leaders. He brings with him the promise of change and jobs for young people. The established political groups have attacked him as not being a legitimate winner and promise to challenge the election results. All of this has a familiar ring to it.

Cortez

Newcomer Ocasio-Cortez wins upset in Queens congressional primary. She's young, attractive and charismatic. She makes a lot of statements that are non-nonsensical and shows her inexperience but she is still attracting lots of attention. This very similar thing happened to Sarah Palin when she burst on the scene several years ago. She too made remarks showing her ignorance of the world and the world of politics. There is a major difference in the way these two are treated as individuals. With Palin the criticism became personal and she was pilloried with insults about her as a person whereas the critic of Cortez is mostly about her position on issues.

Russian walk and talk

In 2002 the US agreed to put missiles in Europe but in 2009 Obama cancelled the project after Putin threatened to start an arms war. Trump has now sold missiles to Europe. Trump has sent military weapons to The Ukraine to fight against the Russian invasion something that Obama did not do. Trump has opened drilling in Alaska and approved Canadian oil pipelines both of which will increase the supply and directly effect Russia's main source of income. The Trump military budget of $700 billion is the largest in history and it will be used to update nuke facilities. Trump has increased spending by over 40% to the European Deterrence Initiative to deter Russian aggression. Trump loosened the rules in Syria and allowed US troops to directly clash with Russian troops. Trump encouraged NATO members to increase their contributions. Trump is talking nice to the Russians but he is not acting nice.

Farm aid

The 2018 farm bill spends about $120 billion dollars per year and $96 billion goes to food programs for the poor and for schools. The rest goes to programs that help farmers. The Trump increase in import taxes will cause prices to drop so Trump wants to send $12 billion to farmers to make up for the loss but they say they want trade not aid despite the fact that the farm bill has for years provided aid.