Impossible Alternatives

 One lesson that the citizens of the USA should have taken away from the debate last night, what was it?  For most, it just passed them by.  I will explain in this blog.

Let's go back to basics about decisions.  I think that most of you need that.  First we need an objective and second, we need a list of all the alternatives.  This is where it gets a little cute.  The list can not contain alternatives that are impossible and that is exactly what too may are doing.  If you were listening last night you would have heard a lot of candidates proposing alternatives that were impossible. If you did not catch on, I am talking about abortion.

The Supreme Court made in clear that the Federal government has zero authority when it comes to abortion.  100% of that authority is in the states, not thee Federal government.  When one of the candidates says that he will pass some kind of law affecting abortion, he is totally full of BS.  He has no authority.  They should all just stop talking about abortion at the Federal level.

Only one person who was in the debate seemed to understand the simple logic of decision making.  All the others were just putting out political BS to voters who were so stupid as not to have any grasp of the Constitution.  It is a very sad situation when our candidates for President and the voters are so stupid.

PS-- If you notice, our citizens and politicians are always debating on decision alternatives that are totally "impossible".  Why is that.  You can look at religion for the best example that I can site. 

Fire In Hawaii

The Hawaii fires has already killed over 150 people and it is claimed that this the most people ever killed in a forest fire.  This blog will be short and to the point and will open you eye about honest in the press.

Back in 1871 there was a forest fire in the state of Wisconsin.  It was called the Peshtigo fire and it happened on the same day as the great Chicago fire.  Did you ever hear about this forest fire?  I did not think so.  They are not 100% sure of the exact number who died so the estimates are between 1,500 and 2,500.  The news papers reported the Chicago fire but did not at first report the Peshtigo fire.  That was because the fires was to large and moved so fast that very few were able to get away and report on the fire.

The point of this blog is to, again, point out the the news media can not be trusted 100%.  The current news media is even worse in the quality of their reporting and most of you know it.  I think the largest natural disaster is still the explosion of a ship loaded with fertilizer in Texas.  There was just another ship loaded with fertilizer exploding in the Mediterranean.  I think is was some Russian ship.  Did you hear about that one?  I didn't think so.  

 

Biden As A Father

 In this blog, I am going to examine how good of a father Biden is.  It will be interesting.

We already know how good of a politician Biden is.  He has one of the worst histories in the Senate.  Can you name any single significant thing that he did?  I know that I can't.  How about you?  The only reason that he became Vice President under Obama was that he had sonority in the Senate because he was from such a small state.  Obama wanted to off set his low rating in foreign relations by having a Vice President who was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee.  No one at the time realized that Biden was incompetent and only got the job because of his sonority.  Such is our government.

As a father, one has the responsibility to raise your kids to prepare them for life.  That mean both economic and moral.  I recall that Biden once said that his son was the "smartest person" he had ever was around.  We should have spotted that one right off.  Like golf, if you want to improve your game, then play with better golfers than you are.  It appears that Biden did not have a good relationship with any really smart people.  If you think about it, how could a father fly across the Pacific Ocean with his son and never talk to him about the reason that he was going along with his father?  Either Biden is a lot more stupid than most of os think or he is totally dishonest.  While Biden was meeting with Chinese government people, his son is cooking up a deal with business people in China.  If anyone knows anything about communist countries and their economy, they would know that these business people  are directly tied to the party?  Don't answer that.  The media has brain washed a very large percentage of our population and you know it.  Apparently Biden knew that too because of his life time in Washington politics.

This whole thing is rotten to the core and Biden as a father is just as bad.  I do not see how, as a parent myself, how it would be possible for me to do only a small  percentage of what Biden has done..How about you?  Are you a good parent?  I hope so.

Better Off Than A Year Ago

 How many times have you heard this coming from some politician?  In this blog, I will explain why this is a trick question. If you have been reading some of my past blogs, then you know that I look a little deeper into most things and use the technical side of most arguments. and this one is ho different.  To look at data you often need to transform it in some way so that you can look at it honestly.  Some times that means normalizing the data if it is a situation where you are comparing apples to oranges. You know that you can not do that directly.  If you were in a boat looking at the shore, you would have to take into account that the boat is moving or the river is moving in one direction or the other.  Looking at data is no different,  Now the title of this blog.

It is the oldest statement in the book to ask people if they are better off today than they were some time before.  It sounds on the surface like it is a good question.  If you look at it directly in most cases you are better off so you give a positive answer.  But if you look a little deeper you see that it is a trick question and for one thing, you are a year older.  Now what normally happens when you age one year?  If you have been saving even one dollar, you will have more savings this year than last..  Your kids will be a little bigger and because you have gained some new skills, you got a raise in pay.  Do people take all that into account?  I don't thinks and that is why it is a trick question.

If on the other hand you are worse off. then things must have gotten double bad and that is what has happened with Biden. He has double killed the quality of life here in the USA.  That is right he has "double killed" the economy.  I tried to explain more of Biden's negative impact in prior blogs that you can read.

Don't fall to "trick" questions from politicians, think before you react

What Happened To Our Cities?

 I think that I know what happened to our cities and I will tell you in this blog.

This is going to be short.  Here is what happened.  The USA was basically a very rural place.  We had all this free land and people immigrated here to get that free land. They lived on that land and raised their families.  That was a great success for all.  It was a transition that had to end at some time and it did.  The USA started another transition and that was from rural to urban. Just like when Europeans were moving here from cities in Europe had transitioned the other way.  What ,most people do not realize is that the people who first started moving into the cities and urbanizing the USA were different people.  They had been raised in a rural area and were mature and well mannered.  At first they built very good cities, but like any transition things changed along the way.  What happened is that those moving from rural areas started drying up and replacements for the cities were actually being grown in the cities and urban areas.  At that point the positive impact of those moving in from rural areas was replaced by more negative people produced right there in the cities.  As this continued and accelerated the quality of life in the cities began to decline.  It was made even worse by those few in the cities who were positive forces started moving to the suburbs.  This left the cities with out any positive people only most of the worse.  With the covid influence, those who could work from home moved out too.  This only accelerated the decline.  Do you follow how this all happened? Is there any real hope for our cities?

For some reason most people do not realize or see that every thing is in some kind of transition.  You are getting older each day and that is a transition.  We talk about grass growing, but that is small potatoes when it comes to life and the many things that are transitioning all around us.  Wake up. 

Abortion

 It seems like abortion is the topic of the day in politics. but do voters actually know what they are arguing about?  That is the point of this blog.

Let's go back to the beginning.  That would be the founding of the USA back in 1790.  There were 13 independent colonies at the time.  They saw the value of joining together but were concerned about losing their individual independence.  They had seen this happen with the Kings and Queens in Europe and did not want that to be their fate.  What did they do?  They drew up a contract call the Constitution.  It clearly stated the authority that they would grant to a Federal government and clearly stated that if  it was not written in the Constitution that that authority would remain with the states.  When that was all agreed too, they finally signed the Constitution.  Could it be clearer?

Now abortion. Some where along the way a state tried to restrict an individual who wanted an abortion in their state.  The person took the state to court to defend what they thought was some kind of right that was given to them by the Federal government.  The Supreme court agreed that the individual has the right to an abortion and that the state could not stop them. That was the way it was for several years.  

Now, along comes another case that makes its way to the Supreme court, but this time the court re-reads the original constitution that all state signed and did not find that the Federal government had the authority to pass laws affecting abortion.  Only states had that authority as written in the Constitution.

Now the decisions are pushed back to the states to deal with them. Some states felt that what the Federal government had done was what they wanted for their state.  Others took a different position per the wishes of voters in the individual states.  That was the contract that they had all agreed too in the original Constitution. but everyone was not happy.

As it turns out in a democracy like the USA it is virtually impossible for 100% of all voters to be happy with any decision.  That is why we actually have a democracy so that over half of the people will at least be happy.

Now, to the problem at hand.  What the Republican party needs to do is to explain how we got here and why each state, not the federal government" has to deal with the abortion issue in a democratic way.  It is not for the Federal government to get involved at all and that includes using Federal tax money for or against abortion. In the end, each state may end up with a different solution that its majority of voters want.  That is the case with speed limits and fishing regulations.  So what is new?  The bottom line is that the more the Presidential candidates get involved in abortion the worse it is going to be for them.  They need to keep repeating that abortion is a 100% state issue as confirmed by the Supreme court.

Candidates, do not get involved in how many weeks that is OK with you for women to get abortions.  It is none of your business as President.  Just say that you will support and abide by the Constitution of the USA that you are sworn to support.  That is it.  If the voters are so stupid that they can not understand this. then there is no hope for the USA or you if you are elected.

Government Honesty

 How about a little honesty in our government?  Did you think tt was honest?  I will show you a few facts in the blog.

How about my last blog about "Mandates"?  Did that open your eyes?  This one is even bigger.  It is the whole social secruty system.  We all pay into the social security systems except a few like the railroad union guys.  I was taking to some friends who are now collecting on social security and most think that it is a good deal and that they have already gotten out most of the money they put in.  That is totally wrong.  Only one in the group was aware that the company matched the amount they put in.  They had no idea how much interest that was earned or not earned on their money.  I told them that the government did not tell them that their employer matched their deduction and that was the first time they knew about it.

People think that the matching amount that their company puts in is some kind of gift, but it is not.  The company would feel just the same if they added their amount to your pay check and then you put in the total of about 15% all by yourself.  That is right.  It is 15% of what you earn.  How about the interest that you could have earned if you had all of that in your IRA?  No one thought about that.

Here is what I think that our government needs to do and that is to add the employer's contribution back to your pay check so that you can see the "Honest" amount that you are paying.  If you knew that, then you might be more concerned about how the fund is managed and how many free loaders are getting a piece of the pie without ever paying in a dime.  Just like my blog on "Mandates" if we got this slight of hand trick out in the open that our government is playing on us, I think that we could end up with a much better system.  I believe in Honesty and Openness in government.  More light is better than being in the dark as most of us are now.

Government Mandates

 Most people only watch the spending and the national debit, but there is a lot more and I will explain in this blog.

Most people don't know about the impact of the many government mandates.  I tried to dig out some facts on them and I found it very difficult to impossible. Exactly what is a Mandate and what is impact and why does the government pass them.  The main reason is that it is a very sneaky way to spend our money without most us even being aware of it.  It does not show up on the budget.  It is a little like when Biden did not get any kick back, he got a loan that he did not have to pay back.  It is a loop hole just like the Mandate is a loop hole for the government.

How big are these mandates and exactly how do they work as a loop hole?  The earliest one that I am aware of is the sugar mandate.  I think that it was passed in about 1804 or just about 15 years after the USA was formed and it is still in effect. Here is how it works.  The government wanted to help the sugar producers here in the USA, but rather than giving all the citizens money to buy sugar or putting an import tax on imported sugar, they limited the amount sugar that could be imported.  The result is that we pay more for out sugar and farmers that could not compete are able to produce sugar.  To put this in perspective, the sugar lobby in Washington DC is bigger than almost all the other lobby groups combined.  You pay about $070/# for sugar while on the world market it only cost about $0.20/#.  Your government is screwing you and you don't even know it.  Notice that coke in Europe and Mexico is made with real sugar while here it is made with corn syrup.  That is because sugar on the world market is so much cheaper than sugar produced here. 

What if our government pulled back the curtain and showed the extra cost of sugar in the budget and then gave us the money so we could buy the sugar made here?  What would our national debit look like if our government were honest and not hide behind Mandates?  sugar is not the only big Mandate, but it is about the oldest.

How about ethanol in you gas?  To produce ethanol here cost over twice the cost of gasoline made from oil.  Look at a gallon of gas with 10% ethanol. The Mandate that requires us to buy gas with ethanol cost you and me about 20% more for our gas.  We are talking about billions here.  Combine that with limiting drilling and pipe lines and the screw job is even bigger.  Remember that it is all done with Mandates not by adding taxes or showing it in the budget.

PS--I dug out some more data on the partial cost of the gas and oil mandate.  We use about 200 billion gallons of gas and diesels per year and gas has gone up by over $2.00 per gallon since Biden got off on his green deal.  That means the cost of this one thing has cost us at least $800 billion per year that does not show on the budget.  This is a back door screw job by the Democrats and Biden, 

Pay Raise

 Everyone wants a pay raise.  Don't you.  This blog will show you a different angle.

I just heard that the auto industry labor wants a 32 hour work week and pay for the day that they do not work.  For the members, this sounds like a good deal, but is it. Exactly what is a pay raise in the first place?  It is more than to just get paid more money.  It is so you and just you can earn more than other people so that you can purchase more of what they have made.  That is if they don't get a raise.  If they get a raise and what they have produced goes up by the same percentage as your new wage, they have made zero progress.  Got the pictute?

How does the auto worker come out on all of this?  He gets a raise and then uses his new money to buy a car made in Japan or some place else.  Is this really a good deal?  For him may be. but not for his kid who would have also worked at the car company.  His kid now works for McDonalds for less money than his dad makes.  It that progress?  I don't think so. It is like a chain letter or musical chairs.  As long as the music plays all are happy, but what happens when the music stops?  I think you know.  The problem is that things like this take a long time to work their way thru and most people only look a very short distance ahead.

While all this is going on there is something else happening and what is that?  It is efficiency.  That means the auto worker figured out or at least someone did, how to make cars faster or with fewer hours.  We call this productivity.  I do not see a problem with either adjusting the wages higher or selling the car now for less.  It all works out to be the same.  The problem is that most of us want to operate in a vacuum and take all the improved productivity home for ourselves.  The auto worker wants to keep the price of his car the same and then give himself a raise so that he moves ahead of the pack. This is the game that we all keep playing thinking that we are going to get ahead of the pack.

It can get even worse if people feel that because they are older that they should be paid more even if the do exactly the same thing.  You know that this happens all the time.  If the person learns more and can do more then it is logical that they should get an adjustment in pay, but that is not the system that we have created.  Our school teachers are one of the best examples of how this whole business of age and additional degrees have gotten out of control.  Most people do not see a problem with it because they are riding in the same boat.

No one thinks about the end of the game because they know they are going to be dead before the game ends.  They feel that if others are cheating, then why can't they.  Others cheat a lot and they are only cheating a little bit.  Great justification.  

I was exposed to the chain letter idea when I was about 10 years old and it has stuck with me all these years and I see the concept operating every where.  For those who have not had a close experience with the chain letter idea are at a loss when is comes to understanding the big picture of our life and economics.

Flat Landers

 It looks like Trump is being persecuted by a bunch of "Flat Landers".  I will explain in this blog.

I think that most us know the story about Galileo and how he was arrested for claiming that the world was not "Flat".  Isn't that exactly what Trump is facing right now?  Just because the church "the media" says that Trump lost the election fair and square does not mean that it is true and that having a different opinion is against the law.  If only one person claims your opinion is wrong, is that legal, but if 1,000 people feel that your opinion is wrong, have you broken the law?  Did you ever notice that the first amendment to our constitution gives us all "freedom of speech".  Whey do people when they are witnesses in court have to swear on a bible that what they are about to say is the truth?  Why do they even have this step?  

It appears to me that the people who are so against Trump are little more than "Flat Landers".  Like in the old days, these people did not have the mental ability to even consider that the Earth might not be "Flat".  If any of them knew anything about history, they would know that humans had figured out that the Earth was round thousand of years before Jesus showed up.  If there was a vote like now, I think that many people today would think the world is flat.  The story of how a smart human figured out the world was round is very simple.  Some person was dipping water out of a well and noticed that the Sun's light reflected clearly back at him.  He told his friend about this and the person told him that on the same day at high noon he looked down his well and did not see the Sun shining back.  He felt that his friend had lied to him,  The person who saw the reflection knew what he saw and thought about the situation and how it could be true.  The only thing was that the Earth must not be flat and if it was not flat it must be round, but how large.  This was a smart human so he paced off how far the other person's well was and designed a simple test

The test was for the two of them to hang a stick from a string so that it was plumb to the ground and was the same length and the measure the shadow cast by the Sun at high noon, They assumed that the Sun was so far away form the Earth that it could be assumed that it was infinite.  They drew a circle showing where the two shadows of their sticks would have had to be on that circle for them to cast the different length shadows that they did.  Their graphic method produced a circle that was within 5,000 miles of what it was calculated to be several thousand years later by us sophisticated humans.

At the time he could not convince their Flat Lander friends that the Earth was actually round and that is was about the size they had calculated.  It was not until several thousand years later that the masses finally accepted that the Earth was round and that the Sun did not rotate around the Earth.  This is basically what Trump is up against only this is not a factual debate, it is a debate of "opinions" which is protected by the First Amendment.  Why don't they arrest the Pope for saying that their is a God?  So far it is only an "opinion" of thousands of people that their is a God

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