Author Archives: Commentary about the Blue Marble

Try Thinking Before Believing

17 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in Hoaxes

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I just watched one of the greatest hoaxes or conspiracies of the twentieth century. It was a PBS documentary on the Lunar Landing. Doesn’t everybody know it was all done in a warehouse in Area 57? That’s another hoax where the Air Force says they don’t have any aliens in the freezers.

The biggest conspiracy is that FDR not only knew the Japanese would attack our base at Pearl Harbor, he knew weeks in advance. He wanted us in the war so we could fight with England so he got tough with sanctions against Japan.

Of course, the 1962 conspiracy theories were the Grassy Knoll and Cuba’s training of Oswald. The biggest ones for this century is Obama wasn’t born in America and he is a Muslim. Many hoaxes and conspiracies are put out by people who want to gain publicity for themselves or their cause.

Perhaps the greatest believer of hoaxes and promoter of his own hoaxes and conspiracy theories is Donald Trump. He still believes in the ones about Obama and has spawned hundreds of other hoaxes which his adherents believe and pass along. The media tries to show the hoaxes and conspiracies to just be more lies but Trump is leading a crusade to destroy honest media and promote dishonest media. Common sense should cause people to question some of his most outlandish statements but “The Big Lie” strategy seems to be working here as well as it did in Nazi Germany.

Oh yes, let’s not forget the Russians, Chinese, and other dominating the internet with their own strategies to divide and disrupt our country. Why are so many so gullible? P.T. Barnum couldn’t come up with what Americans believe today.

Lying Without Consequence

17 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in Leadership

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According to my mother, when I was a little boy I used to blame all my faults and errors on my imaginary friend. Many adults still blame others for their mistakes. I have made a great many small and large ones and I have taken responsibility for my own screw-ups. I changed when Mom explained to me what the sign of President Truman’s desk meant. “The Buck Stops Here” is what is required of a leader, not blaming everyone else for my own mistakes. When the people I supervised made an error, I took the blame because I must not have trained them properly. That is leadership.

Today we have a President who accepts no blame for his actions and statements. Just like a little child he often says “I didn’t say that.”, “The crooked media is lying”, and of course “It’s a hoax.” The documented number of lies and half-truths he has said is over 17,000 and rapidly increasing.

Why didn’t his mother teach him morals? Are his children taught to lie to get ahead and to avoid responsibility? How can 40% of Americans believe a liar? In November we will see how many people can accept having a liar as our country’s moral leader.

Big Decisions Required

14 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Leadership

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Here is the problem facing the governors. Just over a hundred years ago we had the Spanish Flu killing tens of thousands of us. Medicine and treatment wasn’t as advanced as today. Entire towns quarantined themselves by blocking roads into town. The virus died out after several months and didn’t come back. No vaccines were made to protect people. It just didn’t return. Why? We don’t know. Will COVID 19 be the same?

The hope is COVID 19 will do the same but the virologists don’t know if the immunity occurs at all with all levels of contracting the virus and how long it lasts. The Chinese have just announced they are starting to have a second wave of people getting sick. Does that mean it will stay with us until we all get it or a vaccine is widely distributed?

How does a Governor decide what to do? Does Pritzker open the state up in a few weeks and the virus comes back killing hundreds more requiring another shutdown? A negative test for an individual doesn’t confer immunity or mean that a person can’t get it the next day and spread it to others. Should a Governor make it mandatory for people to wear masks for months or years?

When should restaurants and other “non-essential” businesses re-open? When do non-emergency surgeries start again? What about debt and how do governments return to some kind of fiscal responsibility? Illinois wasn’t stable before so what does Pritzker do now?

One thing I know for sure, whatever decisions are made, most people will not be happy!

Wade Today, Swim Tomorrow

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Climate Change

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This letter is to those extremely few people who have decided that they know more than a fifth grader. (It was a TV show about first to fifth grade questions.)

When I “go shopping” with my wife, I usually stay in the vehicle reading or talking on my flip-phone. Most days I end up rolling down the windows to cool off. Even a fifth grader knows that the sun’s rays come into the vehicle’s cabin and warms the seats and trim. The air gets hot because the sun’s rays can come through the glass but the heat rays can’t go back out.

Why? In the nineteenth century, a physicist discovered that extremely minute amount of carbon dioxide will block infra-red heat rays from escaping a confined area. We live in a confined area called Earth.

Earth is surrounded by an atmosphere with a very small amount of carbon dioxide. For life to survive on this planet we need a tiny amount. Just a few parts in a million less means Joliet is under thousands of feet of ice or a few more gives us Venus’ atmosphere. Glacial ice in Greenland indicates the air in 1744 had 277 parts per million. That period was before the industrial age started. The amount in 2017 was 407 ppm. Major volcanic activity can have a temporary cooling period such as the Little Ice Age but as CO2 has increased so has the temperature.

Now almost every year is hotter than the previous one, the world’s glaciers and ice caps are melting, oceans are expanding from heat, and the world is changing fast. For a week last winter Antarctica was warmer than Disney World!

Even fools can realize the truth by wading coastal cities’ streets during king tides each month. It is stupid and foolish to deny facts you can see.

 

To Buy or Not To Buy

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Uncategorized

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To buy or not to buy, that is the question. Is it better for a state to buy emergency medical equipment by bidding against other states or for the Federal Government to purchase them at a lower price? The obvious answer is for the Federal Government to maintain price control by being sole buyer and having used Presidential powers to create new manufacturers.

As a news junkie I watch Trump as much as I can tolerate. I have heard him say he would use the Government’s reserves to give to the states and buy more when needed. They should not complicate things by trying to buy supplies themselves. Then a few weeks later he says it is the states’ responsibility and not his. Then later, he says the states are running up the cost by bidding against each other and he will buy for them.

Then his president-in-waiting son-in-law says the Federal Reserve is for the federal governments use only. That is why the Illinois treasurer had to pay 3.5 million for items at a Dwight McDonalds which would have been much less if FEMA had been buying all the supplies. Other states weren’t willing to pay that much.

How can people think President Trump is doing a good job when he constantly is shown to be mismanaging the effort and contradicting his own expert team? He pushes an unproven drug because Rudy Giuliani tells him it will stop the virus. The question I want to know – is Giuliani lobbying for the drug company and how does Trump benefit from selling it?

Is the Federal Government supposed to buy and distribute fairly or create total confusion?

 

Thirty Trillion Debt

06 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by in National Debt

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That is 30 followed by twelve zeros. By the end of the year we will probably owe at least that amount and if the Congressional Budget Office is right, the virus will still be affecting Americans in 2021. They see at least 10% unemployment and a recession still in progress. At least two more give-aways are on-line for May and July. More will be later this year and into next year.

Regular readers know I have railed against the yearly budget deficits and exploding National Debt for years. Bush II put us back into the red with his tax cuts. When the Great Recession hit we were already running a deficit during a growing economy. Obama couldn’t raise taxes so he tried to cut expenditures. It was pretty much a bi-partisan effort to keep spending. Sequestration was proposed by the White House and finally accepted by Congress.

Trump’s increase in spending and tax cuts has sped up the flood of red ink. During a growing economy we have been growing the yearly deficit and National Debt. Before the virus hit we were on schedule for 1.2 trillion deficits. This year’s will now probably be around eight to ten trillion. Our future yearly budget payment on the debt may be a third of the government’s income! And yet Trump is looking at another tax cut!

We must have a sizable tax increase to pay down the debt. America can’t go on long before we are literally drowning in red ink. The Bible says to save during the seven good years for use in the seven bad years. We did not! Now we will see a “winter of discontent.” Oh, so many zeros!

No Confidence Vote

14 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by in Viruses

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Many scientists have said the United States was not prepared for the Corona virus after it had hit China so hard. In the first few days of his Administration, President Trump dumped the group who had been working on preparing for a pandemic that was sure to come.

Some unknown person persuaded Trump to put scientists in charge of the virus battle which is good. However, he gets on the podium first to make the virus an attack cooked up by the Democrats and media. He actually said to not let a cruise ship dock because it would make his numbers bad. Today he said the testing kits were perfect but not as perfect as the transcript.

To soften the economic impact of the virus on our economy, Trump met only with the Republican leaders of the Senate – not the Democrats. His proposal is a payroll holiday until his re-election. First he says the virus is an inconvenience and now it is a plot to keep him from being re-elected. The virus isn’t about the 230 million Americans, it is all about Trump!

This may be his first test as a leader. Will this be his Katrina, or Chicago Snowstorm, or will spin the health and economic disaster into a plot against him and him alone? How will he be able to convince his brain washed followers he is on top of the situation?

During the first Friday in March, I watched a group of politically conservative heads of hedge funds talking about the virus’ impact on their funds, one which I had seen a few days before sitting at a table with Trump. He said Trump should stay off the stage and quit tweeting because he has lied so much, he has no credibility. He and his political people should stop talking and conflicting the scientists he has put in charge. He looks incompetent speaking and then having his scientist contradict him.

One Senior worth Ten Kids

11 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Voting

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The political campaign mantra is that seniors vote and young voters may not. A good campaigner can get kids all wound up- but few actually get out to vote. Seniors look at the possibility of not only getting elected but getting their ideas put into law. The Biden followers are older and black. His followers are known to vote in large numbers.

We older voters don’t usually vote early in a Presidential election primary year because the choices will winnow down well before the Illinois primary. Those kids who voted early for their soul mate choice probably wasted their time since Pete and Liz are out. In November I picked Biden for the Democratic finalist and Klobuchar to be his vice-President. I admit before Super Tuesday I was getting a little nervous about my prediction.

We will be voting in the Primary and in November at our regular voting place.
Will the kids? Will you be voting at our polling place?

Crimes against Humanity

04 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Environment

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I wouldn’t say I am a tree hugger, but I do support several of the leading environmental groups. Maybe I am not a literal tree hugger, but I know we must all try to save the planet from ourselves. Perhaps it is just in our DNA to destroy where we live.

Often we try to make rules and laws to force us to do what is right even if we might not like it or it will cost some corporation money. The best local example is the Chicago River. People used to hold their noses while walking near the River. Today people paddle their canoes on the River.

These are a few of the rules this administration has decided to eliminate in order to gain favor with corporations and a few voting blocks. The new rules change the National Environmental policy act to reduce or eliminate environmental reviews on infrastructure projects. It eliminates climate change and sea level rise from FEMA’s annual review to satisfy real estate developers. Trump’s nominee to head FEMA says he doesn’t know how the climate is changing.

The new interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act means killing off birds by oil spills, chemical and construction activities will not be fined. BP’s Horizon spill or Duke Power’s coal ash spill would not be punished by fines.

The lessening or elimination of construction and infrastructure review is important to the President since 72% of the $900 million in infrastructure grants goes to states voting for him.

Savaging our environment for profit, ideology, or profit is more that immoral – it’s a crime against humanity.

The Truth about the Corona virus

04 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Economy

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As of March 1, the Dow Stock index has fallen over 12% from its high a few weeks ago. Why? Currently we do not have massive numbers of people infected but we do have thousands every day flying into our airports and then out to the cities, towns and hinterland that have come from or through an infected area. Maybe they sat next to an infected person who didn’t yet show signs of infection. Mortality is 2.5 to 3%.

The President has no credibility so when he talks about the likelihood of Americans being spared from contamination nobody believes him. Appointing Vice-President Pence to oversee the pandemic is not going to reassure anyone. The administration says we have 30 million masks in storage for a population of 230 million. Morris Hospital as one mask for each employee, and more are on back order. The world is desperately short of masks with 3-M Company trying to make more as fast as it can. Most manufacturers are outside our borders.

Trump is right about one thing, it will burn itself out in a few to several months. In the meantime this is what could happen. One of my friends is planning a vacation with her family to Michigan in April. If Michigan is an infected state she won’t go. It means she won’t be spending money on lodging, food, gasoline, and other things which hurts Marriot, McDonalds, Exxon, and other businesses a little bit. It also hurts their suppliers, and the people working for them.

The car manufacturers would shut down to limit the spread among their employees. That would mean all their suppliers around the world couldn’t send their products so they would shut down. Imagine all the other businesses that might be affected. Yes, it probably will just last a few months but it might cut the country’s GDP growth down to less than 1% or maybe into negative growth., That’s why fear is cutting your IRA in half.