Monthly Archives: March 2018

America, like Americans, Is A Mixture

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in U.S. Economy

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Bob Lemke’s letter of March 22 on Capitalism vs. Socialism was thoughtful and well written. It was entirely one sided because we do not have an idealistic capitalist economy. Our government, at the directions of thousands of lobbyists, right and left-wingers, political strategists, economists and well-meaning do-gooders, keeps our economy from the purity he wants us to have.

Our government gives tax breaks to some companies and not others in the same business. I remember Lee Iaccoca, CEO of Chrysler in the late 1970s and 1980s, persuaded Congress to back a two billion loan to save the company. General Motors and Chrysler were bailed out during the Great Recession to save them. True capitalism would have let them and hundreds of other companies we have bailed out or helped by imposing tariffs on foreign countries to fail. The purists just pushed Trump into the recent tariffs.

A free market is the essence of capitalism so why do we want the government to crack down on the pharmaceutical companies for raising their prices? That is state control of prices. Capitalism means if the price is too high don’t use it. During the Great Repression the government saved our banking industry again and that isn’t capitalism.

We have a controlled capitalism, which is not so far from China’s controlled socialism. China has a thriving economy of barely controlled private sector and a failing public sector which is slowly being eliminated.
Capitalism means standing by ones self and if you fail, then you fall. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other aid aren’t capitalism but socialism and we can’t survive as a humane society without them.

Can America have purity? No, of course not. Can we have a mixture of both capitalism and socialism? Yes, we can and do as long as one doesn’t override the other. Both survive with a controlling government.

Deepening the Swamp

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Politics, President Trump

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President Obama instituted a very unusual (in Washington D.C.) ethics policy for his administration. If a person was to work for him, they could not have been a lobbyist or a congressional staffer or special interest lawyer for over two years. This was because people were a lobbyist one day and the next day overseeing an agency they had been against the day before. The idea was to put people into positions that were less attached to outside money. Some waivers had to be made because of especially rare expertise. Obama made seventy waivers over his eight years, mostly during the finance fiasco. Each waiver was accompanied by a reason for the need.

One of the first things President Trump did was to sign an executive order decreasing the rules. He has already signed thirty-seven secret waivers without any reason given. That’s not draining the swamp he campaigned on, but deepening the swamp in Washington D.C. The EPA has the most conflicts with lobbyists and lawyers that represented businesses against the EPA. Now those people are gutting our environmental protections in favor of their former bosses. We are heading back to the good old days of freely polluting the air and water, and allowing banks to gamble with depositor’s money.

Trump just wants to throw out anything done during the Obama years and much done before. Where is a modern day Teddy Roosevelt and his efforts to control the rich and big businesses’ trampling of Americans? Maybe somebody like Biden, or Kasich, or Huntsman?

FaceBook Is Just a Tiny Tip

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Social Media

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A writer should always indicate any possible conflict of interest so a reader can decide if the writer is biased. My wife and I own shares of FaceBook and SnapChat. I did not buy FaceBook near its initial public offering because I could not believe people would put personal information out for review by the world. That started to change when a Congressman informed people of his minute-to-minute morning routine in the bathroom! I did not understand its business platform possibilities at first.

FaceBook and other social media are being pilloried for allowing outside companies to collect information on their subscribers. The FaceBook problem may have started when Cambridge Analytica asked subscribers to voluntarily answer a questionnaire about their habits. What we know at this time is that questionnaires gave Cambridge and Steve Bannon (yes, that Steve Bannon) access to all the participants’ friends’ information. It’s called “mining” and it occurs every time we use a credit card, buy a subscription to something, belong to a charitable organization, or use a loyalty card. Your alumni organization sells your name and contact information.

Early mining occurred when I graduated high school. Supposedly, companies paid a nickel for each name and address of graduates. Today’s technology allows companies to form a very in depth profile of everyone through our involuntary dissemination of our personal habits. Social media mining just increases the profile perfection. Right or wrong we give out information about ourselves so companies can target ads or information to us. For instance the NRA won’t waste money trying to recruit me or my friends because of our memberships in other organizations.

My generation used to believe privacy was the cornerstone of our constitutional rights. But today we are the biggest population user of FaceBook. Times change and everything we do increases some company’s targeting of information to some siloed people by Breitbart, Fox and ads put Trump in the White House. Did the Russians use the information in their meddling or just get extremely lucky?

Oral History May Be True

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Genealogy

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President Trump has made demeaning people into a cruel art form. One of his victims is Senator Elizabeth Warren. He calls her Pocahontas because she says one of her ancestors was a native American. He should talk. His Grandfather ran a whorehouse in Alaska! I sympathize with her because her and my family stories are similar. She hasn’t had a DNA test to support her family’s oral history but I have and mine is puzzling.

My paternal side has been traced back to a minor Viking leader in Northern Germany (now) around 777. We do not know who his parents were because no records exist. We can trace my line through the Viking conquest and settlement of Britain to the immigration to Virginia in the late 1600s. Apparently that ancestor practiced primogenitor and gave his extensive landholdings to the oldest son. The other son’s family grew up poor and illiterate but one boy fought with Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. For this service he received land in Southern Illinois.

After the war his wife died leaving him with three young sons. Somehow on his way west he acquired a Cherokee wife named Sarah. He and the boys may have been illiterate but they were smart enough to bring a very literate Native American into the family. They settled on the pension land and a few generations later I was born.

Now that was the family history for almost two centuries. If it were true the second wife would not have had any part of my gene pool. The family was always proud to claim a smart Cherokee as part of the family tree even if not directly related.

Today one can spit into a vial, send it away with a check, and find out for sure. My genes say I have the right amount of Native American genes to know that John and Sarah Johnson had at least one son of their own.

As a boy I had over a hundred cousins thinking the story of having an Indian twig in the family tree was as far as it went. My DNA says the sons from the first wife have a great history. My DNA says a part of me is Cherokee. To honor her I drive a Jeep Cherokee.

Senator Warren says her great grandmother was an Indian. Some people are happy with the family legend and don’t want to wreck a nice story if it isn’t true. So whether or not she has a few drops of Indian blood or not should not be meat for someone with Trump’s character and morals.

Fortifying, Not Arming

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in NRA, School Shootings

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The President, some members of Congress, and the National Rifle Association are pushing the insane idea of arming teachers. Only on the filmy surface does that make any sense. Civilian Rambos are for movies.

Putting guns in schools is a dumb idea. Giving them to a veteran sounds like a good idea until you realize that very few veterans have ever been in a combat situation much less fired a handgun in one. In combat situations civilians get killed. Do we want someone to shoot students by mistake?

A great example occurred a few years when two of New York’s very highly trained elite officers were guarding a Manhattan building. They saw a man with a gun about forty feet away. They fired seventeen times, hit him twice, and thirteen other people near him and across the street. Paper targets and situations aren’t the same as picking out a possible shooter when students and staff are running back and forth.

The answer is to “fortify” the school with strong doors and double sets of doors where possible. This would mean nobody gets in without permission or is held within the two sets of doors until police arrive. This idea alone will deter potential bad people from entering the school. Nothing would stop an incident from occurring outside the school.

The NRA is always for more guns because that is more money in their pockets. I have yet to meet a teacher or professor that I would want armed in a school.

Bravery is More Than a Word

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in President Trump, Uncategorized

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Our brave President has said he wouldn’t have stayed outside the Parkland High School like the school’s resource man, he would have charged into the building. Of course he would have been surrounded by his secret service detail protecting him.

After publicly criticizing members of his own party for cowering before the National Rifle Association, he said he would lead the charge. Later that evening the assault troops from the NRA went to the White House. Trump surrendered with out receiving any wounds. His bravado pales to the point he announced the next day a total agreement with the NRA’s line.

If he is scared of the NRA, what will he do when he is meeting the leader of North Korea? Kim has killed hundreds including his half brother and uncle. His family thinks nothing about killing their own people by torture, starvation, or Kim’s favorite way of tying them to the muzzle of an artillery piece and yanking the lanyard.

Kim may be a cartoonist character, but Trump thinks of himself as a tough guy. However, one really is a tough guy and the other is just a cartoon character.

Another Viet Nam

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Afghanistan

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I image almost all of America was surprised to learn that former General and now Secretary of Defense Mattis said we cannot have a military victory in Afghanistan, I remember the uproar when Obama said we would reduce troop levels by a certain time. Where is that uproar by those same people? Oops, they are in power now!

How can we send troops to a combat situation after we tell them you can’t win so don’t get hurt too bad. This reminds me of Viet Nam when that war was mismanaged. Nixon kept putting troops in after he knew he had lost the PR war and thus invigorated the North Vietnamese leadership to continue. Now we have a similar situation.

An old axiom of military training is leaders fight the last war instead of planning for the next one. We pulled out of Afghanistan before winning there to move those troops to Iraq. We mismanaged the Sunnis causing the Iraq Civil War. JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Bush II, and now Trump thought more of not losing on their watch than saving our troops. Obama tried to get out of Afghanistan but its stability was in question. He pulled troops out of Iraq because we could not get a treaty keeping them from Iraqi law for any crimes the Iraqis considered an American Trooper committed.

Alexander, the Great, discovered the only way to beat the fierce Afghans was to marry the daughter of the biggest tribe. That sounds like a possibility for a President with a ticked off third wife!

Always Air Gap

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Russia

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What is so hard to understand? The news is full of Russian hacking of our utility computers. Obviously the nuke plants are critical but power networks are very critical. Even the fossil fuel stations and water system plants are computer controlled. Many of the chemicals used to make our drinking water safe is poisonous if too much is put in the water lines. On the other end is the computer running the sewage systems and we don’t want that one blocked up!

Air gaping means the computer operating the station, plant or system is self contained. That means no social media games, personnel records, purchasing, or anything not absolutely required to operate. No carryover of updates or added operating programs without them being extremely thoroughly checked to keep viruses out of the operating systems. It is always answering an e-mail, a game, or one recent hack was a job application.

If we can’t protect ourselves now, how can we expect to be sure we can flip a light switch or open a water faucet and get the desired result during a troubled time? Maybe the hacks over few years did not do anything now but left a virus with a time delay. If we are going to let computer programs run our lives, we need to air gap all the military, public and private systems!

Trump Isn’t Jack Ryan

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in U.S. Presidents

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In re-reading Tom Clancy’s book, Executive Orders, I think President Donald Trump may think of himself as the book’s President Jack Ryan. The book was written in 1996 just before Trump once said he started thinking about being President. Ryan was supposed to be just a placeholder Vice-President but almost the entire government was killed minutes before the ceremonial swearing in before a joint session. President Ryan had to fill all the top spots, get a new congress, fight a war, and show he was supposed to be President.

Normally when a new President takes office, all those top posts have to be filled. That’s about 400 positions. Usually the party has a stockpile of people who can fill those posts. When Trump took office he would not take anyone who hadn’t been his supporter during the campaign or wasn’t at least an acquaintance. Most often the people he found were extraordinarily critical of the department they were to run. Ryan picked apolitical experts with considerable experience. Trump picked loyalists that would support him completely whether they were knowledgeable of the department or not.

Both had to start over. Ryan because they were all dead and Trump because of his hatred of Obama and all he did and Bush II because of his stated opposition to Trump. Neither had ever held office and had no political experience. Ryan had an experienced Chief of Staff; Trump is too unstable to be guided by any of his Chiefs of Staff.

Yes, I think Donald Trump thinks he is the real world Jack Ryan facing down Iran. He may not know what Clancy wrote wasn’t factual and he can’t do what fictional Ryan did. Fictional Ryan was later elected to a full term with a huge majority, Trump got a minority of the vote and will get even less in 2020 if he chooses to run again.

Need to Know

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Fake News, Journalism, Politics

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What do we need to know? Do we need to know that the White House is so chaotic that over 25 people have left and many more will go in a couple of months? Do we need to know that most of the Cabinet is incompetent and are owned by business and special interests? The media keeps us informed on all these issues and a myriad more.

Some people have literally stopped reading, listening, and watching the news because it scares them. I have never heard so many people talk about leaving the country until a new President is in office. Some even voted for Trump and then regretted it. A few of my friends are news junkies like me and are also getting burned out on the daily reports and leaks of mismanagement and back-stabbing.

News is addicting too many of us so last year was like Fentanyl to news junkies. This year is shaping up to give us an overdose. The question is how can an average voter make an educated evaluation of who to vote for if they don’t pay attention to the news. Citizenship demands being informed by real news.

My advice is to pay as much attention to local, state, national and international news as you can tolerate because it will shape your opinions and attitude. Please stay away from Russian websites, tweets and comments, far right and left commentaries, the internet, and if Sinclair Broadcasting gets WGN, add it to the list. If the news makes you physically sick, then carry a bucket!