Talk Talk Talk: 2019

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Something Isn't Right II

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-tax-law-fortune-500-companies-pay-0-taxes-2018-213157006.html

How can profitable corporations not be paying taxes?

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Shooting Deaths (article with map)

https://projects.oregonlive.com/ucc-shooting/gun-deaths

There is very little text. The main thing is 3 maps. Here is one. They're surprising.

The entire Rocky Mountain area is high in gun deaths, but homicides are almost exclusively a

Southern phenomenon, though there are pockets of violence further North.

What is most surprising is that the north-east isn't nearly as violent as the South and West. Check out the website.

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Most of today's Republicans think it's alright to let Pres. Trump pressure the Ukrainian president to bribe him with political assistance in exchange for money which Congress had already assigned to Ukraine. They somehow ignore the fact that Donald Trump or any other future president, if we should have another, would have absolutely no restraint on selling the services of the presidency by requesting bribes from anyone and everyone to sign legislation, offer emergency assistance, sign a treaty or do anything else a president can do. Want your legislation to become law? How much will you pay the president? Want your forest fires put out? How much will you pay to get water tankers and firefighters from the president? Want drug interdiction to your community? How much will you contribute to the president's re-election campaign? There would be no end to it. Forget about any Congressional subpoena for documents or testimony. The presidency would just say "Nyet" and Congress can pound dirt. Forget about oversight. The Executive branch would become a black box which didn't answer to anyone. Forget about FOIA requests. Government is slow to process them now, but after Trump gets away with his behavior, there won't be any reaction to FOIA requests. It's over.

Republicans who ignore the law, offer us a future where there is no impeachment and no removal from office for bad conduct. They offer us a future where winning the presidency would be winning a "get out of jail free" card and carte blanche to do anything with the presidential powers. It would be Hell for everyone else.

We all know the impeachment of Bill Clinton was meant to tear him down, so George W. Bush could win the next election. Bush lost the popular vote by 500,000 votes and only "won" when the Florida election was handed to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was a "party-line vote" 5-4. W won by 1 vote in a very stolen election. They would have had a better chance of winning fairly if they hadn't impeached Clinton. After the impeachment failed to remove Clinton his poll numbers went up. But at least the actions of future presidents wouldn't have been affected. Clinton's "sin" was entirely about personal conduct and not about the presidency. Donald Trump's behaviors as president and using the powers of the presidency are an entirely different thing and all future presidencies would be affected.

Some people way that those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. The Founders of America had seen the behaviors of monarchs of Europe and they learned from that. They created the impeachment clause especially to restrain an American president. Maybe today's Republicans think that maintaining power in the short-run is the only important thing. Maybe they've forgotten life under a monarch/emperor and how little power they would have. Maybe they hadn't fully realized how despicable Donald Trump and his Russian master Putin could be.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

What We Know -- collated by PoppinKREAM of Canada

Here is a link to a Reddit.com post about recent events:

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/dcqy4p/about_300_former_national_security_officials_and/

Below are two comments created by PoppinKREAM of Canada. I suppose he has been collecting these for some time.

What have we learned since the initial reporting of the President attempting to solicit support from a foreign government that relies on American aid in an attempt to take down a political rival? President Trump, Attorney General Barr, Secretary of State Pompeo, and Rudy Guiliani have been plotting to discredit the Mueller Report.

We learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in on the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky.^[1] Last week he denied knowing anything about the whistleblower complaint, however he has recently changed his tune following reporting indicating that he was in on the phone call.^[2]
We have learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr have been involved in President Trump's plot to try to rewrite the history of the 2016 US presidential election and Russian election interference.^[3]
We have learned that President Trump pressed the Australian Prime Minister to work with Attorney General Barr to discredit the Mueller report.^[4]
We have learned that AG Barr discussed the FBI Russia investigation with UK intelligence^[5] and that President Trump personally called Prime Minister Boris Johnson for help to discredit the Mueller report.^[6]
Congress has filed several subpoenas^[7] including the President's personal attorney Rudy Guiliani for acting as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President.^[8] Guiliani has since hired a lawyer to represent him in the Ukraine scandal that's unfolding.^[9]
While the President of the United States has threatened to arrest Congressional house leaders for investigating the President's abuse of power^[10] and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refused to comply with Congress' Impeachment inquiry,^[11] however 2 State Department officials rebuked Secretary Pompeo and have agreed to testify.^[12]

The Mueller Report is incredibly damaging to President Trump. The report confirmed that the Trump campaign attempted to solicit the support of the Russian government, however Mueller was unable to establish a conspiracy. The Mueller report points out that the Trump campaign had improper conduct with Russia on numerous occasions. However they found that the value of the contact was not sufficient to rise to the level of a federal crime. The report goes to lengths explaining how difficult the investigation was due to obstruction and lying by those that were being investigated. The Mueller report confirmed much of the reporting about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian operatives including;^[13]

Mueller report confirmed that Trump campaign chairman and deputy chairman Manafort and Gates were sharing internal polling data with an operative who Gates had thought was a Russian spy.
The Mueller report confirmed that Trump campaign manager and convicted felon Paul Manafort offered to give private briefings during the campaign to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Following Trump's public call for Russia to find Clinton's missing emails he privately directed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to find them.
The Mueller report confirmed that foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos attempted to arrange meetings between Putin and Trump and that the President approved of Papadopoulos's work.
The report also confirmed that Trump campaign surrogates met with Russians in Trump Tower soliciting damaging information on their political opponent. The report goes on to mention that Trump surrogates who attended the meeting weren't charged with violating campaign finance law because there wasn't admissible evidence to show that Trump surrogates knew that what they were doing was illegal.
The report confirmed Russia's extensive election interference.
Over the course of the investigation we learned that a Trump campaign adviser was directed to find out about future DNC leaks. Roger Stone was in contact with Wikileaks and the Russian hackers known as Guciffer 2.0 and is currently on trial.
Over the course of the investigation we learned that the President's long time personal attorney and convicted felon Michael Cohen lied to Congress about the Trump Organization pursuing a lucrative hotel project in Moscow during the 2016 election.

The report outlines the Trump campaign sought to create a relationship with the Russian government. The same foreign adversary that was and currently is engaged in cyberwarfare with the United States of America. The report illustrates the Trump campaign showing a willingness to work with a foreign adversary to acquire damaging information on a political opponent. All while denying Russian election interference and refusing to notify the authorities of any overtures made to the campaign after they had been warned about election interference by the FBI. The report is quite illuminating and confirms many media reports including the fact that the President attempted to fire the Special Counsel while trying to force his subordinates to lie for him to investigators. It's all in the report and while its 448 pages long it's incredibly descriptive.

A breakdown of the significance of a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky

In a phone call on July 25 2019 with newly elected Ukrainian President Zelensky, President Trump attempted to solicit the support of a foreign government and may be in violation of Federal Campaign Finance Laws.^[1] When President Zelensky asked about military aid to combat Russia, Trump immediately segued the conversation into requesting an investigation against one of his political opponents. President Trump repeatedly made requests including opening up an investigation into former Vice-Pesident Joe Biden and his role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor that Trump claims was supposedly unfairly shut down by Biden because he supposedly feared his son was being investigated.

This is a complete mischaracterization of events. Following Ukraine's revolution and Russia's annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian President Poroshenko was dealing with corruption scandals. Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was a discredited individual who was leading an investigation into corruption. The corruption was staggering, for example following assistance from the International Monetary Fund a $1.8 billion loan to help the Ukrainian banking system disappeared offshore in accounts owned by a Ukrainian Oligarch.^[2] At one point Shokin fired prosecutors who were working on corruption cases against corrupt officials.^[3] Following pressure from Western Allies and the Obama administration the Ukrainian parliament overwhelmingly voted to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. The decision was celebrated by Western Allies that were providing financial support to Ukraine including the European Union to defend themselves from Russia.^[4] Moreover, in his most recent interview former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko debunked President Trump's conspiracy that Biden forced the firing of Shokin to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who had been working in Ukraine. Prosecutor General Lutsenko stated that ""[f]rom the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything," and added "Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival."^[5]

Days before his conversation with Ukrainian leader Zelensky the Trump administration suddenly froze aid allocated to Ukraine.^[6]

The White House has attempted to mislead the public by claiming that aid was frozen due to corruption, however NPR obtained a letter from the Pentagon that certified Ukraine had taken action to decrease corruption 2 months before President Trump blocked aid.^[7] A month before this phone call in June the Pentagon announced plans to provide $250 million to Ukraine in security cooperation funds for things such as training and equipment in an attempt to build the capacity of Ukraine's armed forces following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.^[8] The State Department announced plans to provide $141 million in aid.^[9]

So why are the United States and Western Allies sending aid to Ukraine? In 1994 former Soviet Union member states including Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum. It was a diplomatic memorandum under which Ukraine removed all Soviet-era nuclear weapons and signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In return for these concessions the former Soviet state consecrated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as an independent state by applying the principles in a Cold War era treaty signed by 35 states including the Soviet Union. Russia violated this agreement in 2014 when they invaded Ukraine.^[10]

Since this story broke President Trump has threatened the whistleblower and has tweeted a quote about civil war if he is impeached.

Following the phone call a whistleblower from DNI filed a complaint that stated President Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election," characterizing the conduct as a "serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law". President Trump has been attempting to cover all of this up.^[11] A Trump appointed Inspector General detailed his concerns in letters where he stated that the whistleblower complaint being kept from Congress was both urgent and *"relates to one of the most important and significant of the (Director of National Intelligence)'s responsibilities to the American people."*^[12] President Trump attempted to block the whistleblower and called it fake news.^[13]

President Trump endangered the whistleblower by claiming he committed treason for notifying the authorities of the President asking a foreign nation to interfere with the 2020 election.^[14] Moreover, the President quoted and tweeted about a civil war if impeachment occurred which may be in violation of:^[15]

18 U.S. Code § 2383 Rebellion or insurrection

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

Monday, September 9, 2019

The Shocking Paper Predicting the End of Democracy

A friend has informed me that the world of Political Psychology has been shaken up by a presentation about "the fall of Democracy". I have a few words in response.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/08/shawn-rosenberg-democracy-228045

I have two different answers which refer to different aspects of this situation.

1. In comparison to other systems, except for perhaps primitive native tribal governance, Democracy has been far superior and we won't forget that. It is government by committee.

2. Our current problems, both domestic and internationally, may stem from a different and surprising drive. It is the difference between seeking an Ideal and of simply governing the people as they are (with all their faults).

In case of 1, Democracy simply wins.

In case of 2, we are currently seeing the Left and Right split drastically, as it was in the 1960s because one wants to strive toward the Ideals of the Constitution (the Founder's dream) and the other is the "culture wars" pragmatic side which wishes to remain as we have always been and not strive for any ideals except that the existing hierarchies be strengthened.

The latter is difficult because the Right-Wing political operatives have sought to use the energy of the Right to gain more political power and this has pushed the Left to do the same, ergo split. The answer is for both to give ground and find compromise, but that can't happen until the Right finds their approach isn't giving them what they want.

Internationally, America has tried since Woodrow Wilson (at least) to "promote Democracy" abroad. In many ways this has been terrific, but as with the domestic insistence by some to remain the same, internationally there will always be some people who don't want to "reach for any ideal" which isn't their own. So, America has to pull back internationally, let everyone settle-in and see if they like where things are and then perhaps in 30 years we can have another new approach.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Green Energy News -- August 2019

Electric Automobile Recharging

With fast-charging, electric cars will soon match or beat gasoline cars in every respect – ThinkProgress

Tesla-says-its-new-technology- can-recharge-a-car-in-15- minutes -- Bloomberg

Oil giant Shell buys leading operator of electric vehicle charging stations | TheHill

Electric Public Transit

Shenzhen shows the world how it’s done, electrifies all public transit with massive fleet of 16,000+ electric buses | Electrek

The increasingly irresistible case for electrifying city buses Almost half of all buses will be electric by 2025 - Business Insider

12 major cities pledge to only buy all-electric buses starting in 2025 | Electrek

'I leave the car at home': how free buses are revolutionising one French city | Cities | The Guardian Hyundai unveils all-electric bus with 180 miles of range on a 256 kWh battery pack | Electrek

Electric Cars and Bikes and Scooters

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/best-electric-cars/

https://www.myev.com/research/interesting-finds/electric-cars-and-crossovers-whats-new-for-2019

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/1365-best-electric-cars.html

https://www.edmunds.com/electric-car/articles/best-electric-cars/

US utilities have finally realized electric cars may save them -- Quartz

Would you buy a 500-mile range electric car that charges in one minute? – ThinkProgress

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/opinion/electric-bike-aging.html

https://www.pedegoelectricbikes.com/

https://www.evelo.com/shop/

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Sports-Outdoors-Adult-Electric-Bicycles/zgbs/sporting-goods/3405141

There are a zillion bike makers. That's far too many for me to provide links.

First 100 miles on my E-Bike: what I learned – Cognitio

New Electric Motor Could Boost Efficiency Of EVs, Scooters, And Wind Turbines IEEE Spectrum - IEEE Spectrum

https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/

https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/motorcycles/electric.html?source_cd=Vanity_electric

Other ways to save the planet and New Technologies

30+ Remarkable Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint - Conserve Energy Future

Exxon Thinks It Can Create Biofuel From Algae At Massive Scale

The Liquid Metal Battery -- YouTube The Liquid Metal Battery 2 -- Youtube

New-artificial-photosynthesis- breakthrough-uses-gold-to- turn-co2-into-liquid-fuel -- ScinceAlert

Stronger than aluminum, a heavily altered wood cools passively | Ars Technica

Tesla's new Solar Roof V3 will be same price as shingle roof and electric bill, says Elon Musk - Electrek

Monday, August 12, 2019

Major Structural Changes to the Economy

Recently I've been hearing more and more people calling for major structural changes to the economy. Though the unemployment rate is below 4% there are people who don't think the economy is working properly. I agree and I've written a few posts some months ago on this topic and with specific suggestions to change things which will shift the distribution of wealth slowly away from the investor class and back toward the government and the workers.

Today's post is not another small technical change of that kind. It's about a shift in our economy which began with the political shift to the Right, back in the 1970s and early 1980s. It's about Vulture Capitalism and some associated things.

It may come as a surprise to many younger people, but in the 1970s during the malaise of the Carter administration (1977-1980) the economy grew at about 4% every year. This wasn't a major political advantage or surprising. It always grew at a strong pace because when it collapsed it fell badly. But, the general rate of growth (taking all the pluses and negatives into account) was very strong and a typical stock market increase would be about 7%. Recently it's been struggling to grow faster than 2% / year. The wealth through the 1960s and 1970s was fairly well distributed between labor and capital and all boats rose with the tide or sank the same. In the early 1980s there was debate about the coming revolution in the economy due to micro-computers and the Republican's planned assault on unions and one conclusion was that capital, and not labor, should get all the new profits due to their investments in computerization. Of course, capital would also get the longest straws when unions evaporated and wages went South (literally). Later there was also the beginning of globalization and many more women in the workforce and those too took a toll on worker wages. This and the fact people loved Ronald Reagan was a nightmare for worker wages and the Republicans loved every second of it. They nick-named Ronald Reagan "St. Ronnie".

With Republican deregulation of business and tax cuts and the usual economic ups and downs there were many business failures during recessions. I'm not absolutely certain of the provenance of Vulture Capitalism, but it may have begun with something called a "turn-around". When companies were being scrutinized to see if they could survive the next turn-down some investors decided there were a few companies which simply needed better management. They invested, changed the CEO and in many cases the companies did better to earn everyone a nice return on their investment. Workers benefited too since the companies didn't go bankrupt. I think it was in the 1980s that a few investors saw that rather than trying to turn a company around, they could just take it into bankruptcy, shed some debts, return to normal functioning, and make the company profitable again. This all sounds pretty good until some investors took another shot at making big money from weak companies. Rather than trying to turn them around, they put them into bankruptcy, shed debts, fired workers, sold the company for profits, and put the money in their own pockets. They didn't care about the life of the company or the livelihoods of the workers, they just wanted the money. These were the Vulture Capitalists -- picking over the carcasses of the companies they had killed.

A side-effect of this was that many very capable CEOs began to demand higher pay or other compensation (stock options, etc.), so that their ability to keep a company's stock price high was recognized. Keeping stock price up helped to keep away the Vulture Capitalists, though a cost of that was to shift attention away from normal business activities and investments. The increase in CEO compensation has contributed to the huge wealth gap which exists today. It drains money from legitimate business activities and puts it in the hands of a few. It's like paying mafia types, pirates, or kidnappers a regular fee (protection money or insurance policy) to keep them away. Over the long run it gives those bad guys far too much power. With that economic power they begin to be more represented in government too. The shifting of resources away from normal business activities has led to a weaker economy (growing about 2% / year).

Once you've seen that a weak, but going business, can be taken down and picked apart for instant profits, the idea of running a company that only returns 4-15% profit / year makes no sense. Why not just kill and pillage every company you can get your hands on? You may ask how this was all legal and I don't know the law very well, but you can rest assured that with Republicans in charge from 1981-1992, they found ways to ensure it was all legal.

Where were the Democrats? In the 1990s Bill Clinton was doing a lot of things, including making the economy run like a top. But, he only had 2 years with a Democratic Congress. After the Gingrich revolution of 1994 the Republicans stopped any and all progressive legislation. They ended by trying to tear down Clinton-Gore to win the next presidential election. They impeached Clinton, but failed to remove him from office. They didn't want to remove him, they just wanted to hurt him. If they had removed him the Vice President, Al Gore, would have been in great position for the next presidential election. Then the Republicans had the presidency from 2001-2008 and it was a catastrophe with 9/11, wars, spending out of control, torture, and everything else you can imagine. They ended with a recession which was the worst since the 1930s Great Depression. The start of the Obama administration (2009-2016) was obsessed with stopping the recession and passing financial reforms to prevent it happening again AND healthcare reform (see Obamacare or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or the ACA). Pres. Obama also had only 2 years with a Democratic controlled Congress. So, the Democrats simply haven't had sufficient power and time to get a lot of things done -- after cleaning up Republican messes.

Today we still have a Republican president, Donald Trump, and an economy which is working the way Pres. Obama and the Democrats left it, except for a huge tax cut the Republicans passed and de-regulations the administration pushed through. Oh, and there are the tariffs. Pres. Trump has decided a trade war is the best way to convince China and some other countries to agree to a new trade deal that he likes. It's killing the agriculture sector of the economy and a lot of people are hurting.

I say, give the Democrats control and some time to make big changes and we can do much more to make the economy grow while employing most Americans and growing global trade.

Aside from eliminating the tariffs and working out a real trade regime that makes sense, the ridiculous tax cuts for the rich have to be rolled back to give the government a chance to get back on track. We can't run trillion-dollar deficits every year. Then we can turn to other changes of a fundamental nature which will help return the proper balance of labor and capital.

Looking at the changes which led to our current weak economy and wealth imbalance and lack of a real "American Dream" for most Americans, the changes which have to take place are largely a reversal of Reaganomics. We must tax the wealthier people in America to pay our debts. We must pay workers more (increase the minimum wage). We must NOT hinder unions since they have been a strong force to keep workers wages at good levels. But, more than that, we have to recognize that Vulture Capitalism is not only a failure, it's equivalent to a mugging or pirating or kidnapping for ransom. It's criminal behavior and it has to be stopped.

One of the key laws which is involved in Vulture Capitalism was recently mentioned in an on-line discussion. It is that when a company goes into bankruptcy the company's assets are distributed to the shareholders. But, what of the workers, their retirement funds, vendors, other debtors? I think the laws allow far too much benefit in bankruptcies for investors who supposedly knew the risks of investing, but who want to recover all the benefits available before other interested parties. I say that the social purpose of a company is to employ people usefully and to earn a profit everyone can share. If that is broken and only the capital investors benefit, then you no longer have reason for anyone to keep a company viable and operating when they can just put it into bankruptcy (to take advantage of the bankruptcy laws), stuff all its value into the Vulture Capitalist's pockets, and walk away. It's like bank robbery where you steal the entire bank instead of just the ready cash. Vulture Capitalism is like Bank robber Banking. It's an insane idea. No, the company assets in a bankruptcy proceeding must go to workers, worker retirement funds, and vendors before other debtors, so that the incentives are to keep a company functioning and profiting in a normal way for normal profits. Leave the pirate-level profits to people who should end in jail.

Perhaps one of the biggest revelations about Donald Trump, as it relates to the economy, is how he, as the self-labeled "King of Debt", borrowed money from banks for his businesses, took his own businesses into bankruptcy and took all their assets, leaving a carcass for the creditors and banks. He did this so many times there were finally no American banks which would lend him (or his businesses) money. He went overseas to Deutsche bank of Germany and it is suspected that during the 1980s or 2008 during a recession that he began to receive loans which were essentially Russian money. This process made him wealthy on American bank loans, but then poor during the American recession(s) and in hock to Russians when he got German bank loans (backed presumably by Russian money). It's a strange story, but an important lesson for how important it is to secure our banking system from this kind of fraud and to help the business community to get back to doing business instead of fending off Vulture Capitalists.

The Democrats, though some may seem radical, are offering a return to real capitalism and not Reaganomics or Vulture Capitalism.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Anger at Trump Or Policy Differences?

I've heard some Republicans say that Democrats just don't like Trump or they are still upset that he won the election Democrats thought was in the bag. The way I see it is that everyone knew Donald Trump was not fit for office and yet he was elected. That's disturbing. Then there were the questions about his connections to Russia. That's disturbing. So, yes, there were plenty of reasons to not like Donald Trump, the person, his history, his rhetoric, and his lack of style debase America and disgusts everyone.

But more than that, we hate his policies. And it's this which leads us to call for his impeachment. We don't impeach someone for winning -- not like the Republicans who said they would impeach Hillary Clinton IF she won the presidency. That's wrong. No, the Democrats hate Donald Trump's presidential rhetoric which divides America and inflames hatreds and supports our enemies. We hate his governmental policies like caging immigrant children and separating them from their parents. We hate his deregulation in the EPA which makes our air and water more dangerous for people's health. We hate his economic policy of giving tax cuts to a handful of people who are already rich and to corporations which don't use the additional revenue to support their workforce or corporate growth. We hate his policy of private conversations with Vladimir Putin and inviting Russians into the Oval office and generally tilting U.S. policy toward Russia in every way. We hate his trade policy of tariffs and subsidy to farmers. We hate his name-calling of the media which endangers the freedom of the press and of speech. We hate his obvious racism when he created a ban on Muslims coming into America. We hate his abuse of planned budgeting & spending to divert monies to building a wall across the southern border. We hate his withdrawal from the JCPOA treaty with Iran and several other nations. We hate his ineptitude in relations with China and North Korea. We hate that he pledged to create an infrastructure law and then he didn't carry through. We hate that he used special privilege to get security clearances for family members who should never have had that. I could go on.

We hate almost everything he has said or touched. I'm hard-pressed to think of one of his policies which isn't bad for America. He's a disaster.

Weighing the dislike of him personally and of his policies it's clear Democrats dislike his policies enough to make a campaign based on being better for America than Donald Trump's policies.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Children and Guns

I've written about guns a few times in the past, but the Republicans stifle every attempt to regulate them. Here's a new article from Bloomberg.com.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-17/gun-control-children-have-shot-someone-134-times-this-year?srnd=premium

When is enough enough?

Monday, June 24, 2019

Electronic Voting Systems and Foreign Ownership

NBC News has an article about this issue. Apparently there weren't any analyses of voting systems since 2016 until recently. Read the article. It explains a lot about foreign ownership.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/voting-system-vendors-reveal-owners-after-russian-hacks-investments-n1020956?cid=public-rss_20190624

I also have to wonder if American owners who have a political bias or agenda could be any more trustworthy than foreign owners. Isn't it in our best interests to know precisely what is in the software? Shouldn't it be open source for everyone to see?

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Foreigners and American Election Campaigns

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/c45cl6/how_russia_can_spend_money_to_influence_the_2020/

This was aided by Brett Kavanaugh:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/how-brett-kavanaugh-made-russian-election-interference-easier-and-robert-muellers-job-harder/

Read and be depressed. We need to work hard to restore a working Democracy.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Gun Violence in America

This pretty much says it all:

Monday, June 17, 2019

8chan.net, Tax Avoidance, LLCs, and the Trump Tax Reform

https://twitter.com/swodinsky/status/1139577560835284992

8chan.net may have hosted discussions by a lot of radicals, including some who committed real crimes. The FBI raided their Reno, Nevada, USA site and presumably shut them down. An FBI agent who had been using 8chan (to apparently persuade its readers to blame Russia for a lot of things) was accidentally outed when he photocopied reports of 8chan discussion with his own posts. According to the twitter link above, the 8chan company was set up by someone who specializes in tax avoidance and LLCs. That would naturally relate to the recent Trump tax reform which made it much easier for people to start an LLC and get better tax rates as a business than one would have as an individual.

This is clearly a very artificial connection of things, but in today's world stranger things have proven to be true. Is it possible a serious connection could be made from Trump and the Washington Republicans to other groups which use the LLC tax dodge and are part of the greater group of haters? I don't know. We'll have to just wait and see if anything like that becomes evident.

Friday, June 14, 2019

Boy Fatally Shot Because of an XBox

https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/c0jd64/boy_16_fatally_shot_while_trying_to_sell_xbox/

Read this story and comments. It's tragic that America has places like this.

Monday, June 10, 2019

Jeffrey Epstein: Sex Trafficker and No Justice

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/justice/criminal-justice/article220097825.html

Read this article and be amazed and disgusted. This has to stop and those involved must be punished.

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Eclair

Lightning aside, the eclair is a classic pastry fun food. Here are two web pages with recipes and directions to make your own fabulous deserts.

https://www.saveur.com/classic-eclair-recipe

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/lemon__raspberry_clairs_98706

Miam miam

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Why Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Depend upon the Rule of Law

It's pretty clear that the Trump family, business, and administration AND Vladimir Putin operate like crime families or drug gangs. They work in private to avoid outside observation and they avoid paper records which could be used as evidence against them. They use 'fixer's to enforce their personal "law". They buy judges and rig events to get what they want. They use money laundering and various other schemes that benefit the mob.

Generally, in a more primitive society such people would simply be identified and killed. But in a society (America, "The Western World", Western Civilization) we use the Rule of Law because it's more fair and just to more people and in more situations. We don't dole out death sentences based on the whims of one person and we use varying degrees of punishment to protect the public from criminals and to offer criminals a chance to give up their life of crime to return to normal life.

The mobsters are incredibly hard to pin down when they operate in private without paper records or recordings (video or audio). Since they know we use records and testimony in criminal court proceedings, they threaten those who might be able to testify against them or they may pay them off to stay quiet (see Stormy Daniels). They try to use mechanisms of legal society to their benefit, such as using a gambling casino as a vehicle to launder money. Another is the purchase and sale of high value items like real estate. One of Donald Trump's casinos paid a fine for money laundering and it is suspected a lot of his real estate operation is to manage money laundering.

How do you identify them? The same way we always identify the mobsters: people who are punished and live to tell the tale pass the word along. When the mobsters talk in public to intimidate people we can recognize that too.

How do you collect sufficient evidence to prosecute them? It takes a lot of manpower and sophistication, but it also requires that the laws not be an obstacle. The RICO act was passed for that purpose long ago. It isn't very effective when we try to identify criminal acts by people protected by a foreign state, such as when Vladimir Putin protects his people from subpoenas or extradition within Russia. In America the House of Representatives has the job of investigating an administration to identify things which are criminal or even inefficient and in need of repair. They have the manpower and sophistication and even subpoena power. Donald Trump has ordered administration officials to NOT comply with lawful subpoenas of the House. That's a violation of law by those subpoenaed and by Trump. However, he depends upon the Republican-controlled Senate or the Courts to protect him and his minions from punishment.

It is clearly a case of the mob in control of government. There have been some cases of this where state governments have gone rogue, but the federal government has been there to oversee them and to punish criminals. Now that the criminals have a significant control of the federal government it's not so easy.

The Mueller investigation was supposed to be a fair objective non-partisan investigation to investigate and disclose what the Russians did to interfere with or influence our elections and how any Americans may have worked with them. The report shows several ways the President tried to stop the investigation or to cover-up things which were done. The President tried to prevent this from being revealed even to Congress. Now he has the Attorney General lying about the content of the report and the AG has redacted parts of the report. The cover-up is underway. The report is weak on explanation of things Donald Trump and his close associates did to coordinate with or conspire with Vladimir Putin or other foreigners. If everyone can see Donald Trump is a mobster, then why can't the Mueller Investigation identifying it as such.

This departure from the Rule of Law will naturally have consequences which are bad. I don't predict specifically what they will be, but if having the Rule of Law was useful, then eliminating it will end that use and revert us to something besides a Democracy and proper government. That is what happened with Vladimir Putin in Russia. They have all the trappings of Law and Order and Government, but Putin is Czar and everyone knows it. Private citizens in Russia have been killed and nobody is found culpable, though everyone knows it was Putin who ordered elimination of his opponents. Now in America Donald Trump is talking about deporting people and ending Rule of Law protections for his political opponents. This is anarchy of a kind.

What will protect them without the Rule of Law? If you chop down all those awful trees, then what will protect the tree-choppers from the North winds?

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Stupid Trump Stuff

Friday, May 24, 2019

"Green" Technologies Continue to Appear

Science, education, and development of technologies has made the world a better place. Today there is development of various ways to collect, hold, and use cheap clean energy or to conserve it. I regularly post about new developments which I think are likely to become common and hugely beneficial. Today I have seen an article about wood treatment which is fantastic. It's like the development of new kinds of metals to use less weight, but retain strength, and add ease in forming shapes.

First up is the article about treating wood:

Stronger than aluminum, a heavily altered wood cools passively | Ars Technica

Converting waste to energy is another common idea, though it has not been used as often.

Converting plastic waste into fuel -- GlobalCitizen.org

Battery technologies are developing to help us store energy and use it when we need it. Here are two links to a technology I think has some promise.

The Liquid Metal Battery -- YouTube

The Liquid Metal Battery 2 -- Youtube

Here's a a new development of science, using nature as an inspiration to generate energy more efficiently.

New artificial photosynthesis breakthrough uses gold to turn CO2 into liquid fuel -- ScienceAlert.com

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Is it Time for a New AUMF?

After 9/11 Congress passed an Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) to fight the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us and anyone or any nation which helped them. Pres. George W. Bush violated that by sending the military to war in Iraq when there was no justification under either the AUMF or based on the arguments they gave that Iraq had nuclear weapons or a nuclear weapon program. Pres. Barack Obama sent the military to Afghanistan and destroyed al Qaeda there and killed Osama bin Laden. Then, in response to an al Qaeda offshoot called Islamic State (nicknamed also ISIS, ISIL, and Daesch) and began the war to destroy them. These were clearly authorized under the AUMF. Our assistance to the Saudi regime with their war in Yemen had to be authorized in some other way. Today Pres. Donald J. Trump has American forces in many places and fighting many foes who aren't clearly part of or a derivative of al Qaeda. The Republicans Bush and Trump have broken the law like George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon before them. No AUMF stops them because Congress refused to step in and stop them.

Today we have many reasons to believe the actions (or inactions) of Pres. Trump are influenced (or even directed) by other leaders (perhaps Vladimir Putin or Bibi Netanyahu or others). We can't trust he will direct the military to remain peaceful or to fight the appropriate battles. We need a new AUMF or simply a Congressional Resolution to clarify their support or lack thereof for current actions vis a vis the AUMF. Does Congress believe current military actions are justified under the current AUMF? It seems doubtful they could say yes.

It's time to specify the groups the old AUMF could justify fighting in order to limit its random use for any crazy idea the president may have.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Trump Corruption

Is it any wonder the Democrats don't want Pres. Trump to have access to billions of dollars to "build a wall" when you see stories like this?

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-trump-administration-bailout-farmers-brazilian-criminals-20190516-6rdb3ithvfec7fttem7qrny54y-story.html

Money meant for farmers is somehow diverted to Chinese or Brazilian firms who may be kicking back money to Donald Trump. If Congress can't investigate his finances, then he has a free hand to steal as much as he likes. That's not the way the presidency is supposed to operate. I can't imagine any Republican Congress would let a Democratic president have that same kind of free ride.

Collusion

from an article in The New Yorker magazine, Why Would Paul Manafort Share Polling Data with Russia?:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-would-paul-manafort-share-polling-data-with-russia

"Fabrizio is also longtime friends with former Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.[15]

In October 2016, it was reported in multiple media outlets that Trump was refusing to pay for Fabrizio's polling services, with the Federal Election Commission report showing that Trump's campaign was disputing nearly $767,000 that Fabrizio's firm said it was still owed for polling"

"We would report out to the senior team what markets those voters were concentrated in," Fabrizio told "Frontline." "In Florida, literally, if you changed four counties in Florida, twenty-nine electoral votes would have been off the table. Four counties."

The linkages are there in plain sight. Reasons for Impeachment are obvious. The only question is whether Senate Republicans will accept the obvious and act to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. Thus far they have not been interested in doing that.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

The Golden Filter: Talk Talk Talk

Is this my blog theme song? I never heard it before today. :-)

Talk Talk Talk -- YouTube

Enjoy!

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Mueller Punted

I can imagine the Special Investigator not wanting to become Special Prosecutor and deciding whether to prosecute. But, turning over that decision to a clearly partisan AG, William Barr, is to say "No prosecution". You can't say he didn't decide. You can't "punt" in this kind of matter.

Monday, April 15, 2019

Green Energy

Plastic waste has been a problem for some time and creating cheap clean energy from wind or solar rays is also important. Now there's a way to get some energy from old waste plastic!

Changing waste plastic into a liquid fuel - Global Citizen

Global economy would save up to $160 trillion by shifting to renewables, electric cars – ThinkProgress

Renewable Friday: Getting to 100%

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Attorney General and Mueller Report

Watching our mild-mannered Attorney General and hearing his words I can only come to the conclusion that he has passed the Mueller report to Donald Trump's lawyers and they are worried about certain parts of it. The reason I say this is that the AG also said he intends to investigate whether the Trump campaign was spied on in 2016. Usually DJT's technique is to talk down anybody he considers a danger and whom he cannot directly fire, sue, or otherwise harm. So, he intends to talk down the FBI and (in his own way) show they should have never investigated him and his campaign in the first place. By talking down the FBI he can come close to dismissing the Mueller report findings.

I suspect the report shows there was spying by Russia on both campaigns, but that the campaign assisted Russian efforts and the Russians assisted campaign efforts (as we have heard via Facebook) and that all the spying done on the Clinton campaign or the Democratic Party was to gather information which ended helping Trump.

Our AG is a disgusting slime who is apparently a small toad in the hands of Donald Trump. It seems clear he is more than a political pawn, he is the tool of individual_one.

Monday, April 8, 2019

Ray Dalio speaks on 60 Minutes

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-how-capitalism-needs-reformed-parts-1-2-ray-dalio/

I could bitch and moan that he's 20-30 years late to these realizations, but it's more useful to praise the work he has done to quantify the situation. His graphs and stats paint a sad picture.

I think Democrats have been worried about issues of the day, but there has also been interest in improving education. It was the big issue of the late 1980s and 1990s. Patent reform was on Pres. Obama's agenda. Banking reform was done in the early 2010s to reverse a lot of the deregulation which bankers had (effectively) bought from Congress over the preceding 50 years. Democrats have been trying to get a minimum wage for a long time. It isn't happening. So, the issues are not unknown and it isn't as if there is nobody paying attention to these problems.

Dalio will hopefully connect with Republicans and business leaders. It's a step in the right direction. Hopefully specific policies will follow.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

McConnell Speech Today Advise and Consent

Studying the history of the senate to find a rationale for actions today is somewhat typical of Conservatives. The Democrats are more concerned with today and tomorrows. For that we must have a way to get nominations studied and rejected or confirmed, but without idiotic candidates such as Trump has made being rammed through on party lines. The idea of 51 votes confirming most nominations is not so objectionable as that Trump should get to make any nominations whatsoever. That he should get to put a single Justice on the Supreme Court is disgusting. Yes, there was an election. But don't forget it wasn't the popular vote that put George W. Bush or Donald J Trump in the presidency and don't forget that there was Russian involvement in the 2016 election. To ignore all this is to make plain that it's only a cherry-picked Senate history which McConnell wants to review.

I thought it was amusing when he said each of the Democratic senators had teeth. I think he said they weren't toothless. But, implied was that it irritated him when they actually used those teeth to bite.

Tough. Deal with it.

Brexit

If the House members are voting against the many different options are wanting THEIR ideas accepted, then it is clear by now that there isn't any easy majority for them. If they're worried that voting FOR something might cause them to lose votes in the next election, then nothing could ever be achieved because the Brexit idea cuts across all parties. In the case of people not getting their own ideas, there are two options awaiting them: hard Brexit or revocation of Article 50 (so they can remain in the EU). Waiting for that choice is a huge gamble for either side. In the latter case of voter worries, they will never work out a good deal and it would have to be returned to the public to vote for another solution. But, if they vote again it would ruin the idea that the first vote was meaningful. No, that won't happen. Again, it leads to the two radical possibilities: a hard Brexit or revocation of Aritcle 50.

So, each side, meaning both Tories and Labour and Brexit Leavers and Remainers, have to look at this hard choice and wonder who is able to make that one 'vote'. Isn't it PM May? Do they trust they will get what they want based on things she has said. She seems dedicated to Leaving as the referendum outcome indicated, so it seems obvious that will be the choice. Are the Remainers really satisfied with that? So far they haven't shown any ability to avoid it. It seems clear that Leave it will be and a HARD Brexit at that. Welcome to the WTO.

Monday, April 1, 2019

ETF Tax Dodge

Bloomberg reports on "The ETF Tax Dodge". It's an interesting story which has its roots in the Nixon years.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-etf-tax-dodge-lets-investors-save-big/

"That loophole gives ETFs a tax advantage over mutual funds. It went from a footnote in the tax code to the cornerstone of a new industry.

For some of the earliest ETFs, which followed broad indexes such as the S&P 500 and rarely changed holdings, the daily process of brokers creating and redeeming was enough to wash away almost all capital gains. The first and largest ETF, State Street's SPDR S&P 500 ETF, hasn't reported a taxable gain in 22 years. In contrast, a traditional mutual fund run by Fidelity Investments that tracks the same index had a taxable gain in 10 of those years."

"The Internal Revenue Service says it's aware of heartbeats and wouldn't say whether it considers them an abuse."

One example Bloomberg cites ends with, "Thanks to winnings on stocks like that, the fund reported more than $4 billion in capital gains for the year. But since it used the ETF tax loophole to shield those gains from taxes, its annual report shows, it ended up reporting a $309 million capital loss to the IRS."

Somehow it sounds like the taxpaying citizen is paying the full bill while these investment funds are walking away scott free.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Maria Butina to be Removed

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5784100/3-29-19-Butina-Joint-Motion-Removal.pdf

Why is the immigration service so successful in this case when the more natural idea would be to simply apply the sentence (probably some jail time) and keep her in America? Could it be more obvious that Pres. Trump is scared shitless that she will talk about how Vladimir Putin have sent her to buddy up to the Republicans and lure them to all join Putin in a coup d'etat of America. The U.S. Attorney who thinks this is preferable to jailing her should have his law license removed and he should be sent as her escort to Russia to live for some years.

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Trade with China

The Chinese have disliked American trade tariffs on their products and have reciprocated. I wonder now if they would continue to "follow us over the cliff" if we reduced tariffs to zero.

If we handed the Chinese a trade treaty signed by Pres. Trump, requiring a reduction of all tariffs on trade between the United States and China to zero, would they also sign it and reduce their tariffs to zero?

Monday, March 18, 2019

B-737 Analysis of What Happened

Reading an article or two and listening to some descriptions of why the Boeing 737 MAX crashes occurred has been enlightening and somewhat disheartening. It appears that budget cuts by the government kept the FAA from doing sufficient study of the new airplane configuration.

Here's an article from Quartz which tells about the airplane and problems:
https://qz.com/1575509/what-went-wrong-with-the-boeing-737-max-8/

Following is a quote from the article which I found interesting:

/quote

Black box data from the Lion Air crash shows that readings from the two angle-of-attack sensors differed by 20 degrees even while the plane was taxiing on the runway, indicating that the instruments were faulty from the start.

Warning lights optional

Boeing designed a warning light that would alert pilots when the sensors measuring their plane's angle of attack differed widely, which would give notify them of a faulty MCAS activation.

The manufacturer does not install the warning light as a standard feature on the 737 Max 8. Airlines have to pay extra for it.

/end-quote

So, the two sensors were working differently. Were they fixed? Were they checked on all the other B-737s?

Why was a warning light about the sensor ONLY optional equipment?

Why, after the first crash was this not reviewed? A regular idea in aviation is that if you've done something and a problem immediately arises it may be related to what you did and you should consider undoing that thing. They put in a new engine with MCAS and sensors and suddenly the new airplane had this problem. Add two and two and perhaps they should have considered reviewing whether to undo what they had just done.

Another quote:

/quote

The safety analysis Boeing sent to the FAA reported that the MCAS could only move the plane's horizontal tail 0.6 degrees (out of a physical maximum of a little less than five degrees). But during later flight tests, Boeing discovered that 0.6 degrees of movement wasn't enough to avert a high speed stall, the Seattle Times reported. Boeing eventually increased the limit to 2.5 degrees.

Despite quadrupling the amount that the MCAS could move the plane's tail, Boeing never updated the documents it sent to the FAA. FAA engineers only found out about the change after the Lion Air crash, when Boeing sent a notice to airlines explaining how the system worked.

/end-quote

Apparently the typical corporate money-saving mentality sank in and they decided to lie to the government. I hope the penalty for that is serious.

They have another computer-takes-control issue in that when the pilot would pull back on the yoke to raise the airplane nose, that action would reset the sensor and the nose-down pitch problem would or could repeat. This appears to have happened in both the crashes. The pilot could fight the nose-down pitch for a brief time, but the machine would just reset and do it again unless the pilot knew how to completely disconnect the MCAS system. Were the pilots trained and shown how to disconnect it?

Machines using computers are powerful and they're being used quite a lot in our world. The Internet vulnerability to hackers is one which shows that security and safety of such systems isn't always built-in or understood. The FAA and commercial airlines have reduced accidents, but with this one new cost-saving measure Boeing gave us one more problem to solve and clear evidence we aren't yet very good at producing safe machines on a first try.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Green Energy Begins to Beat Fossil Fuels

Where we stand:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/12/1841311/-The-First-Green-Terawatt-Was-the-Hardest

And when it comes to automobiles the go-to source is always Tesla automobiles:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/tech/tesla-elon-musk-announcement/

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-car-carrier-hauling-trucks-trailers/

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-vs-porsche-carrera-4-gts-race-video/

The batteries and charging stations remain to catch up for e-cars to really take over.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Turning Carbon Dioxide into Coal !

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/ru-crs022219.php

Science is a process people use to learn about the world. When the early alchemists tried to turn lead into gold they were not true to the rules of nature. But, today they've learned how to turn carbon dioxide gas back to coal (or something else solid like coal). This gives us a chance to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and put it into a form for storage or to be put to other uses.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Political Issues: Peace Prize and Healthcare

Trump's Nobel Peace Prize

I'd like to say Trump, Kim, Moon, and Xie deserve the Nobel Peace prize, but I think it would require Trump to make a public statement denouncing racism. The trouble is that he lies so often and words seem to mean so little to him that nobody would believe him. So, I think we will have to wait for observable results before any discussion of prizes can be taken seriously.

U.S. Healthcare

During the 2007-08 period there was a lot of talk about a "public option" to ensure everyone would have a healthcare choice they wanted. That didn't happen, but in light of the constant Republican attack on the PPACA/ACA/Obamacare, the threat of converting fully to Medicare for All has continued. It occurs to me that a good hybrid would be to offer to people who don't qualify for employer-backed insurance or regular ACA coverage or other kinds, Medicare as their Public Option. Add on top of that the idea that if the ACA goes away then Medicare would be open to more people and it would tend to take healthcare off the table as a political issue. The question of whether the ACA is to be eliminated would no longer require political fights or legislation. It would simply automatically enable people to switch to the public option Medicare. There are other benefits of the ACA which are very useful and provide ample reason it should not be removed, but at least people who can afford Medicare wouldn't be kicked brutally to the roadside. The other issue is the subsidy and that is integral and important for the ACA and a good reason to keep it. I have yet to hear the "Medicare for All" backers explaining how the subsidy would work in their system. Marrying those two ideas would be useful.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Politics of the Green New Deal

I hate hearing Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) giving speeches about Democrats and our policies or legislation. If there is any way he an misrepresent our ideas he will. He's only a slightly more sophisticated speaker than Louis Gohmert (R-TX), another gasbag Texan. No wonder they have so much wind energy. They have all the politicians they need to generate a constant and large supply of wind.

However, Democrats need to keep it together and not provide the Republicans with ammunition with which to attack us. A resolution isn't a bad thing in itself, but a nebulous wish-list which is just pie in the sky should be avoided. For one thing, we don't have all the time in the world to gain more political power and push through legislation which will be very effective. We can't afford to waste time fulfilling fantasies which fade like the morning mist.

I know Sen. Cornyn's representation of the Green New Deal is probably all nonsense, but Democrats have to face the facts: he will take any opportunity to attack us, so legislation which isn't rock solid should be avoided.

Congratulations on the deal to avoid government shutdown.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

State of the Union Speech

I thought it would be a waste of time to listen to Donald Trump, so I watched a movie. But, it wasn't just any movie. It was "The Hunting of the President".

It's the story of how the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy tried to destroy the Clintons. It's important to remember what the VRWC did and how they trampled people, but given our current knowledge of political affairs it's also important to perhaps revise our views of what was happening in the 1990s.

After watching the movie I saw there was a "special feature", so I looked at that. It was a talk Pres. Clinton gave in the theater just after the opening premiere of the movie. He spoke from the stage directly to the audience, which included some of the people who had been victims of the Starr inquisition. He especially pointed out Susan McDougal. I recommend her book, The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk.

In his talk, Pres. Clinton spoke of the events from a historical perspective as well. He talked about certain major turning points in America's history. If only he knew what we do today about the involvement of Russians with the American Right Wing and the Republican Party, he would have to revise and extend his remarks.

We aren't done with Donald Trump, nor he with us. But, the American history books have to be rewritten and any collusion with Russians has to be included. That may connect the story of events from the 1980s through to today in a more accurate way. Some of it may never be known and some of it may be known by officials in our government, but never to be released to the public. The history books have to explain at least the broad sweep of events and some reasons. I suspect there are key elements to this story which we have yet to learn. But one thing is certain, it wasn't just domestic politics. It wasn't just revenge on the Clintons because Hillary was involved in a very small way during the Nixon impeachment days and it wasn't just a different brand of American politics. It has been far more interesting and difficult than that.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Davos Billionaires Lose Their Heads

During the Davos meeting of "the rich" there has been a lot of talk about a 70% marginal tax rate on the very rich. Naturally they don't like it. They say it would make the economy inefficient (whatever that is). I have a basic lesson about politics and wealth which they should all know.

1. If you have a well-running economy which benefits everyone pretty well (where more boats are raised by a rising tide), there will be no calls for the rich to lose their heads (as during the French Revolution), a 70% marginal tax rate or even "free college". The system will handle it naturally.

2. When the system isn't working well the rabble start calling for change and social programs and free stuff and eventually the heads of those they perceive as being their enemies.

So, if the rise of Donald Trump (who promised to shake things up) on the Right and Bernie Sanders on the Left isn't warning enough, the 70% marginal tax rate discussion ought to be some kind of warning that the rabble, the 99%, aren't especially happy. There were some who voted for Barack Obama for president and they still weren't satisfied, even though he created Obamacare to help them afford healthcare insurance. So, they switched to supporting Donald Trump in 2016. It wasn't about the political party or greed, it was about changing the system to make sure they got what they needed. Has that changed? Apparently not. In 2018 the Left won a bunch of House seats with a few new members who are further to the political Left and who want to "shake things up".

Something's gotta give. The system has to be fixed/improved to distribute the new wealth of the country to more people and to pay for the government's requirements.

It may be that the rich no longer trust that government won't waste money (which the rich see as THEIR money), but that's our system. If our system is under assault by foreign powers and that makes the government work less than perfectly, then the rich should support our political system even more strongly. They have the resources to withstand more than the poor people can. They are the ones who should be arguing more strenuously for less gerrymandering. They are the ones who should campaign for more people to participate by voting. We have a Democracy "if we can keep it" and the rich have more resources to fight for it. At least that was the view of the Founders of this nation when they put their fortunes and lives on the line.