Who pays what

The true poll of how Americans feel about government programs and spending can be assessed by asking one question. When the government decides to spend $50 billion dollars on a very popular program just take that amount and divide by the 150 million American families working and ask if each of these families are willing to write a check for $333 to pay for this wonderful program. This changes the perspective of the people. When you see the government spending as not directly effecting you it is easy to approve most spending but if you have to pony up then things look quite different. Politifact says illegal immigration cost the country $155 billion per year. While many say it is the humanitarian thing to do, how many of those families would be willing to write out a check for $1,000 to cover the cost. The old saying to put your money where your mouth is takes on new meaning.

Bureaucrats

The three parts of the federal government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial, have watched a forth branch gain power over the years but that idea received a big set back by the court today, when it was ruled that the EPA cannot decide how much carbon, coal plants can emit. The bureaucracy has been growing at an alarming rate in the past 50 years and this will slow down that growth. The various government agencies are to interpret the law and not make the law. The court ruled that un-elected bureaucrats have no authority to make laws. This will also curtail law by executive order which once again usurps power from congress. The power of bureaucrats has led to a smugness that was best illustrated when they described the incoming administration as the Christmas help. They know that presidents come and go but they are always there running the show behind the scenes. It also has political implications since 80% of campaign contributions from federal unions goes to democrats. This is not surprising since republicans always promise to reduce government and democrats tend to expand government. If you are a federal employee which party do you want in control.

Riots

Several people suggested that the January 6 rioters were not armed but NPR said, But a review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows that they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs. The NY Times reported that 7 people died as a result of the riots and they were: Ashley Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as rioters tried to breach the House chamber. Kevin D. Greeson died of a heart attack, Rosanne Boyland appeared to have been crushed in a stampede. See below. Benjamin Philips, the founder of a pro-Trump website called Trumparoo, died of a stroke. Mr. Greeson and Mr. Philips died of natural causes, the Washington medical examiner said in April. He added that Ms. Boyland’s death was caused by an accidental overdose. Officer Brian D. Sicknick of the Capitol Police, who was attacked by the mob, died on Jan. 7. Officer Jeffrey Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department killed himself after the attack. Officer Howard S. Liebengood of the Capitol Police also died by suicide four days afterward. It took 4 hours to secure the building and as of today 847 people have been arrested.

Charity

When Sam Walton died his seven children inherited the company stock and at 50% of the total this came to 1.3 billion shares. These share pay $1.80 dividend each year so the family gets $2.3 billion dollars. There are only three children still living and much of their money goes to charity. This the kind of rich people that use charity to spread their wealth around but others use a different approach to sharing their wealth. Billionaires like Leon Musk from Telsa and Jeff Bezos from Amazon choose another way to share. They use their skills to develop new businesses. Bezos started Amazon 28 years ago with one employee and today he has 1.6 million employees. Amazon has never paid dividends to its investors. The company reinvests profits to grow the company and that resulted in new jobs. Tesla started in 2003 and today employs 100,000 people mostly high paid technical types. Tesla pays no dividends to its stockholders and reinvests profits into new jobs including SpaceX which employs 12,000 engineers. If the rich are just sitting on their money they should donate some to charity but if a person has the talent to invent and invest in business that should be their charity. The best welfare program is a good job.

Black crime

Young Black men between the ages of 15 and 35 represent 2% of the population they are 37% of murder victims. Black males represent 6% of the population and they commit 55% of all murders and over 90% of the time it is a Black male killing another Black male. Many have suggested that this is the civil right issue of our time but it gets very little publicity. One of the more disturbing aspects of these data is that it seem to fly beneath the radar of news media. While this death and incarceration of Blacks is hard to comprehend it pales in comparison to the 233,000 Black abortions performed last year. Since 1973, the year when abortions became legal, 24 million Black women have had abortions. This is twice as many as the total number of slaves (12 million) that were brought to the US.

Epstein

Here is something I wrote three years ago regarding the Epstein case. It is often stated that we have two systems of justice, one for those in power and another for the rest of us. This case will test that idea. The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell came and went and without any disclosure as to who were the people who visited the sex island. The FBI sized computers from the island but no one knows what was on them. Evidence from Epstiens safe went missing. The government promised to keep investigating after Epstiens death in order to find out what was going on. All the news reports about different men visiting the island must have just been rumor since no names came forth at the trial. If there were any visitors they can now all rest easy because this whole affair is now forgotten. The answer to my question from 3 years ago is yes we have two systems of justice.

Pelican Brief

Truth is stranger than fiction is an old adage that is sometimes true. In the past week the life of a Supreme Court Justice was threatened and I was reminded of a movie from about 30 years ago called The Pelican Brief. It was about a rich and powerful oil man who discovered new oil fields in Louisianan and was stopped from drilling by some environmentalist who were trying to protect the Brown Pelican. This billionaire had put millions into the campaign of the man who became president. The case was going to end up in the Supreme Court in about 5 years and there were two Justices who were environmental types and this would cause the billionaire to lose so he arranged to have these two Justices assassinated and had his friend, the president, appoint two new Justices who were not that interested in environmental issues. Now here I move into the world of fantasy but what if the three Justices that Trump appointed were killed and Biden would have between now and November to appoint three new Justices more to his liking. Then next term they could reinstate Roe. Talk about a constitutional crisis. This is pie in the sky thinking but strange things do happen.