Monthly Archives: August 2019

Lies, Gaffes, or Manipulation

27 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Stock Market

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            Several decades ago federal laws were passed to keep people from manipulating markets. One way this was being done was to drive up costs by cornering the market, reducing the supply, and then slowly selling their supply at a far greater price than the original cost. The Bunker brothers did this with silver in the 1970s.

            Another way to manipulate the market is by saying something which is untrue causing a stock or the market, as a whole, to move in the desired direction. For instance someone could short a drug stock and tell people a promising drug trial was a disaster causing the stock to fall. Doing the opposite would cause the stock to rise. If the manipulating information was a lie then it was illegal and the SEC could levy fines and restrictions. Federal and State Attorney Generals might file criminal charges too.

            Market manipulation harms investors is when you and I are duped by the criminal actions. Market manipulation is being done on a massive scale today by our President. Yesterday, as in the past, Trump has made false statements to get the stock market to recover from previous gaffes or lies. He said the Chinese had contacted him, his staff at the G-7 meeting knew nothing about any call nor did the Chinese negotiators, and said they wanted to change their position. The Market rose.

            When the President says things that lower the market, some people make money. When it goes back up with another statement more money is made. He often meets with hedge fund people who make billions in the market and heavily support him. Don’t you wonder if there is a quid pro quo connection?

Intelligence is Doomed

27 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Technology

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Another rocket carrying an advanced CPS system of satellites was just launched. It is supposed to make locating your device more accurate. The primary device is your car of the future that will supposedly enable you, not me, to input your entire vacation itinerary and not need to touch the wheel. The reason may be so your car can continue going when it’s snowy, rainy, or your lights don’t provide enough lumination. That is way too much artificial intelligence!

I went to school for nineteen years to learn how to gather and use the information accumulated to make an educated decision to act upon. Today it would be considered a waste of time because my mother would give the pre-schooler, me, a smart phone to answer any questions I would dream up. Why would I need to learn how to add when my phone would tell me? Why should I learn grammar or how to spell when my phone will do all that when I talk into it? I don’t need to look at an atlas anymore because it will tell me everything I need to know. If I can access every piece of knowledge known to man, why would I waste time going to school?

The news just showed a guy driving 75 MPH on an expressway while sound asleep. His Tesla was doing all the work until another driver woke him. I’ve driven over 900,000 miles and was never sound asleep although there were a few times when going home after a date I drove with one eye closed.

We just switched from AT&T/Direct TV to Comcast. One of the service people said an easy way into a person’s protected Wi-Fi system and computer is through the A. I. thermostat. While the homeowner can be too lazy to get off their butt to change the temperature, a hacker can access their bank account, and their life on line. He said most computer people he knows have a flip phone like mine for their personal use because they aren’t internet connected as smart phones.

Bloomberg Businessweek ran a long article on the mess created with the internet. It has enabled people to be deceived with lies and stories intended to divide people. It’s dark sites allows terrorists to communicate plans which can’t be read by our intelligence agencies. It allowed the Russians to convince people to vote for a mental case. The NRA uses it to control people into thinking they need a gun to protect them from, depending on the current fear, another race, a religion, or ethnic group.

Who remembers the original purpose of all the technology and devices? It was supposed to make us smarter and more connected. For the most part it has failed and failed miserably. Why should our brains learn and retain anything more than how to hold a “smart” phone or to plop an Alexis on the counter?

Conservative Rebels

20 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in President Trump

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When Bill Walsh, a former Republican Congressman, Tea Party leader, and talking head on 560 Radio, agreed with me about Donald Trump, the world flipped over. On Chicago Tonight’s August 19 episode, he said, “Trump lies every time he opens his mouth,” “He only cares about himself,” “He isn’t morally fit to be President,” and “Republicans don’t care about debt and deficit under Trump”.

Walsh helped to put Trump in office but saw within a few days he had made a mistake. He says he has come late the show of actively voicing his opinions of how Trump has damaged America. He considers Trump’s playing up to Putin against his own intelligence agencies to be “un-American.” He would, I think, have got too traitorous if Paris Shultz had pushed him for more.

When a radical far right wing nutcase like Bill Walsh sees the disaster we have as President, maybe millions of others will open their eyes. I hope whoever the next President is, signs an executive order eliminating every order Trump gave before trying to figure out if any were good for the country as a whole. He has destroyed decades of work by bi-partisan congresses and Presidents. He has often run down Presidents of both parties as if he is the first smart one.

When Walsh agrees with me on Trump’s ability and ego then maybe Trump will be put on the dust pile (Note I said DUST.) of history in 2020.

Incite to Riot

19 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by in Inciting Violence

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Inciting to riot is a legal term meaning urging a group of people to riot. We also consider yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater to be a crime. Both are federal crimes because they are likely to cause injury and death to others. For instance, when someone incites people to violence against an ethnic or race or religion. That’s when the line is crossed from First Amendment protections to criminal action and it is a wide gray stripe. When a person stands in front of a group and hurls terrible and fictional charges against a particular group he may be in the gray stripe. However, if the person said something like “follow me” or “go get them” then he would have gone past the gray stripe.

Let’s suppose the person repeatedly said all the brown people were murders, rapists, and drug smugglers. Let’s suppose this kind of talk scared people and fit into the beliefs of racist groups causing unrest and mass murders. Many of the mass murders during the last eighteen months have been against people cited in the rantings by a particular person. El Paso, in particular, was against brown people who were invading his country. Mosque shootings and vandalism occurred after the rantings about Muslims. When the rantings are on national news and in front of hundreds or a few thousand people, few listeners will engage in criminal activity. Most of those shooters found their directions from rantings on the dark internet websites, tweets and re-tweets.

Many rantings have gotten close to the “go get them” direction inciting criminal activity. At that time people will have to decide if the rantings have crossed into the “high crimes and misdemeanors” conduct.

No Gift to Iran

14 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Iran

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Let’s assume B.J. Warner made a lot of money but spent more than was made. After getting professional help all of B.J.’s accounts and assets were taken over by the company. After a great deal of negotiations, the company and B.J. come together in an agreement allowing B.J. to get the frozen accounts and assets back. However, B.J. didn’t keep the money but gave it to others. B.J. complied with the agreement on spending as the company wanted but didn’t use the money as the company intended. According to B.J.s thinking of August 11, when the company returned B.J.s money it was a gift from them and not B.J.s own money being released.

The long analogy is to explain how Trump and the other warmongers explain releasing of Iran’s confiscated funds. Granted some of the money went to organizations we didn’t approve of, but it did stop the problem of Iran building a nuclear bomb and that was the purpose. All the countries freed up Iran’s own funds and kept the interest those funds had generated. Much of those funds we had kept were for the purchase of fighter planes the Shaw had paid for but not delivered. Carter froze all the funds in our banks. The other countries froze the funds in response to the upgrading of nuclear fuels. No war was made against Iran.

Just as the B.J. analogy, nobody GAVE Iran money. Trump and others have misinformed and lied to get the uninformed and naive excited about having a disastrous war with Iran. Trump satisfied the warmongers by abrogating the agreement and baiting Iran. He is trying to start a war that will not stay there but will come home. Saddam found killing hundreds of thousands just means more want to die to beat the enemy.

Red Flag Laws

14 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Gun Control

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For those who don’t know what these laws are designed to do, a red flag law is supposed to give the local law enforcement the ability to go to a court to temporarily take away a person’s guns. Note temporarily and not permanently. The laws basically depend on a friend or relative reporting a person they believe is nutty enough to harm themselves or another with a gun. The accuser must tell the reasons and be strong enough to sway a judge.

The Dayton shooter’s mom told the local police she was concerned about her son but had no idea he had a gun because he bought it over the internet from Texas a few weeks before the shooting. The Wal-Mart shooter’s friends and relatives say they had no clue. Assuming the guns are removed, most laws only allow for a few days cooling off period. Another possible person who can report a potential threat is their psychiatrist or psychologist. Sounds good but few of the shooters were seeing a doctor. What does temporary mean? In some states its less than two weeks before they go to court to get them back.

Reporting someone who might want to kill someone probably puts that person at the top of the kill list when the guns are returned. Seldom would this law have saved anyone’s life. But I guess if it stops just one mass shooter it may be worthwhile but not at the expense of getting real laws against assault guns, high capacity magazines, gun shows, and strong background checks. Those are what’s really needed!

People’s Right to Know

14 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Gun Violence

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The first time I heard the term “The People’s Right to Know” was during the Viet Nam War. It was supposed to be the reason secret information was released. I think it’s one of those “in the eyes of the beholder” conundrums. Some things should never see the light of day and others should.

As a co-founder and first president of the Grundy County No Tolerance Task Force, I learned that one of the best ways to fight gang recruitment was to wash off or cover gang signs, keep their activities from being recorded or reported as such, and to tamp down any activity that involved recruitment. The object was to reduce copycat activity by wannabes.

How does this affect today’s right to know? I believe the Dayton mass shooter was influenced by the publicity of the Wal-Mart shooting. We know one school suicide is likely to spawn others if it is publicized very much. A few days ago a man walked into a store with body armor and an assault gun. He did nothing because he had no intention to do anything or had not found the targets he was hoping to shoot. Since Dayton and Wal-Mart, other men have killed using the same type weapons with some reaching the four people shot criteria for mass shootings. Most of those were reported locally and not given much publicity outside the immediate area.

The question is still valid today. Is the public’s right to know causing more shootings and unnecessary fear? Instead of getting headlines across the world, should the media and the internet downplay events thus preventing copycat mass shootings?

Rose Colored Budget

05 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by in National Debt

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Why do we need low interest rates? I bet you are completely wrong! With the low rates of today Washington is paying interest of over 400 billion this year on the National Debt of over TWENTY-TWO TRILLION. The truth is my former party has just pushed through at the behest of the worst President we have ever had, an optimistic yearly deficit of only ONE TRILLION DOLLARS.

It’s through playing with the numbers that the Congress claims last year’s deficit was under a TRILLION. Most numbers crunchers say it is well over that number. When interest rates return to normal we will be paying out over a TRILLION each year just to service the debt!

Medicare and Social Security will total over ONE AND A QUARTER TRILLION this year. In ten years they will total TWO TRILLION. The “Lock Box” will not be able to give out full benefits in seven years because there will be more people drawing on it and because Congress is unwilling to do something about it. Not since Gingrich backed out of his plan in 1997 has anybody had the guts to fix it.

Why do we keep electing Republican and Democrat Senators, Representatives, and Presidents who are running our government into the financial ground?

Here’s the rose colored glasses projections. If we have no recessions, wars, or any other normal event, we will reach one hundred percent debt to GDP ratio in ten years. Is it their idea to bankrupt the government to get rid of Medicare, Social Security, and the other social programs the wealthy wants to eliminate? Is that the plan and why Republicans no longer fear massive deficits? Is it because they fear Trump’s wrath more than they fear the voters? Take off their rosy lies and look at reality!

Satirists Arise

01 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by in Social Media

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Anyone expressing an opinion by writing a letter to the editor might expect some reader to write an opposing opinion. Among the many things I have been called in my long life, satirist is a new one. I looked it up in my trusty Webster and now I will add it to my literary accomplishments.

The use of the word indicates to me that at least some readers have a higher education level than the average fifth grader. I have been told I am writing at a level, which the average reader doesn’t think. Maybe that is truer today then before. Hundreds of times I have read or heard people saying things that only a naive fifth grader might believe. If average American comprehension level has fallen so low then Roger Ailes has won the battle for control of the American mind. Repeatedly he voiced he could control the thoughts of the Fox viewers by lowering the content. I have heard MSNBC was created to combat the Fox agenda. I don’t watch either because I want pure facts, not muddied waters.

In the age of social media and the Internet, correct facts are so rare. Currently we have wackos from the right and left spewing the most stupid, unsupported and inane statements. Along with the people’s lack of fact checking and quest for truth, Russian trolls, and probably soon the Iranians and Chinese will fill the Internet and social media with misinformation and lies to skew public opinion.

Webster says a satirist uses ridicule to attack follies. Those of us who see social media and the internet as a bane on the American moral fabric must be satirists. Who knew that we satirists would be the protectors of sanity and America’s morals?