Ethical Dilemmas

22 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in Ethics

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            Today a Florida jury decided to not execute a kid who shot up a school. It didn’t take long for the jurors to decide since three jurors were ethically opposed to killing anyone. Some jurors believe the three lied when they swore they were unbiased. Some others may not have liked the idea but mass killing of kids was the ethical line for them. The ethical dilemma is would those against an execution feel the same if he had killed their child.

            During World War II someone made the decision to not bomb the railroad tracks leading to the extermination camps. Why we don’t know and may never know who made that ethical decision. Today we are training Ukrainians to use the high tech equipment we are sending to them for use against the Russian invaders. Putin has repeatedly said he will use tactical nuclear weapons to stop his army’s defeats. How will we respond? Will we give the Ukraine nuclear weapons to respond, will we respond through NATO, or will be do nothing again.

            The ethical question each American is asked to make today is here in the United States. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned after 50 years, each voter is being asked to decide how they stand by who they vote for. Many of those running have been adamantly against it in the Primary but are lessening for the general election to get votes. Some have changed their position weekly. Illinois’ GOP Governor Nominee said he “is against it for right now.” Inconsistent ethics is based on getting elected for most.

            We are all faced with ethical decisions and one is whether to give those who disagree with us the opportunity to present their view and perhaps to compromise on an issue both can live with.

What is in a Word?

22 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in Lies

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            Misleading, misinformation, disinformation, deceiving and a Thesaurus of other words are constantly being used by the media and politicians. Whatever happened to lying? It is a simple word. Whoever told their child to quit misinforming them?

            Politicians call each other names that should be bleeped on a news report but won’t use lying. Instead they use all the words above. The Republicans have a standard bearer who doesn’t use any of the other words. Donald Trump calls everyone any name or slur he can think of against either party. He says the most scurrilous words against other people and goes ballistic when people retaliate.

            The media uses the lying substitute words when Trump says his ridiculous rants. Why don’t they quit pulling their punches and call his lies what they are? He got elected because the media gave him a pass on his lies and they have seldom called him on today’s.

Dark Money

22 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in Dark Money, Politics

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            The money donated by millionaires and billionaires through Political Action Committees are Dark Money and PACs don’t have to tell what or who supplied the money. This allows the people to get around the limits the average person can give. PACs are not supposed to coordinate with the candidate or their campaign staff. This also allows them to say things so misleading or so nasty that even a barely ethical candidate wouldn’t want to be associated with the Ads.

            The Illinois Governor’s race is an example. The People Who Play by the Rules PAC has already crossed the line with their ad getting a local retired and respected black newsman, Charles Thomas, to say in an ad that the current governor has failed the Black People in the Chicago Area. One issue is Thomas has lost the impartial stance news people should have. Why would he destroy his and the much sought impartial image of himself and his profession? The PAC is paying him $50,000 dollars. Several billionaires don’t like Illinois’ billionaire Governor because he tried to put through a higher tax on billionaires.

            Billionaires and multi-millionaires funded the Tea Party under an IRS code that allowed them to fund groups which had no particular association to a party. The code did not require public disclosure of whom and how much was donated. The IRS was excoriated and funding cut for the following the rules Congress had set. This opened the door for black money PACs.

            It’s time to eliminate all dark money. However we know politicians who depend on dark money are going to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Our Fed’s Viewpoint

15 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in Inflation

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            Our inflation problems are very complicated and the Federal Reserve can’t see why we have inflation. The past two administrations and the Biden Administration have been making an effort to bring industry back to America. This has caused prices of those items that were made by people making less than two or three dollars an hour offshore to Americans making many times more. The difference is called inflation.

            Finding people to produce items here is difficult. Millions retired during the pandemic so manufacturers can’t find qualified people to hire. With a limited supply of warm bodies, the manufacturers are faced with a choice of making a lot of an item demanded by the public or making some because that is all their limited number of employees can produce. Shortages create price increases.

            Price increases are also a product of free enterprise. The shortage of baby formula was a classic example. To make more money for the formula manufacturing companies, Trump ended the importing of formula. When one of the major plants had to be shut down a major shortage occurred. The reason was the companies making formula had bought up others and combined their production into those of their existing plants. Loss of one was disastrous. Many other industries are similarly concentrated. All are potentially inflationary.

            Loss of transportation is inflationary. Even a shortage of truck drivers or high fuel prices, as we have now, causes inflation across all wage and production prices. Supply disruptions because the products are circling on ships off the West Coast are inflationary. More drivers, cheaper fuel, and faster unloading will reduce costs.

Why Support a Criminal?

15 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in President Trump

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            Over sixty percent of Republicans say they would still vote for Donald Trump if he was indicted for crimes. What has the Republican Party come to if they would like to have a criminal as their President? When he said he could kill somebody in the middle of New York City and still be elected, he and sixty percent of his adopted party are right.

            He has always had a hugely inflated ego. He had lied, conned, and stole for most of his life. When he is committing a crime he puts people in front of him so they are the ones who take the fall. The latest example is having the lawyers sign a legal document stating he no longer had any stolen secret documents. That put the lawyers in jeopardy and not him. Remember, he has a habit of throwing his sycophants under the bus.

            Since being President he started a media company to promote himself, which is making money from the people he conned into investing in it. Now he is negotiating to sell his interest making him alone money.

            Trump’s only thought with any of his endeavors is himself? Why can’t people see his next home should be in a prison and not the White House? What the Republican Party needs is another John McCain and not his former buddy Lindsey Graham.

            Remember the Trump School that swindled hundreds of gullible people? He got to keep some of the money and avoided prison.

Hero of the Ukraine

15 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in Ukraine, Zelensky

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            Volovymyr Zelensky is the President of the Ukraine. He is a combination of Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. He is Reagan in his ability to use the media to go from a comedian to actor to President. Reagan needed the extra step of Governor.

            As a wartime President, Zelensky is Churchill in being able to rally his people into fighting against a country with an army several times larger. As Churchill, he has gotten many other countries to support Ukraine with weapons as well as economic and political support. He has gone from being a moderately successful and supported leader to a Hero of the Ukraine and the world.

            Without President Zelensky the Ukraine would now be a part of Russia as President Vladimir Putin wanted. His people are being killed and his country’s infrastructure is being destroyed yet his people are even the more determined to resist. With massive help from other countries they are pushing the Russians back.

            We and other NATO countries must increase our support for people who are trying to save their country. If they fail to stop Putin where will Putin’s expansion PLANS GO NEXT? He has found his military to be a paper tiger. Will he resort to tactical nuclear weapons and once he crosses that moral line, will he do it again with the next country?

            The Ukraine will continue to exist as long as Zelensky keeps his country fighting or when Putin is ousted from office by force or dies. Without Putin, Russia will pull out and perhaps leave the Donetsk and Crimea allowing the Ukraine to take them back. Zelensky deserves the credit if Putin is ousted!

Sumo Courtesy

15 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in Congress

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            I like to watch high level Sumo Tournaments which occur six times a year. The tournament lasts fifteen days with each wrestler meeting the other wrestlers once. Each day the fighters are kept in one of two rooms so they aren’t with that day’s opponent before the bout. The next day they might be in the other room. The highlights I watch miss most of the rituals before each bout. During the fight they butt heads, slap each other, and perform one of over eighty moves to try to win.

            When the winner is declared each fighter goes to his spot in the ring where the loser bows to the winner. The bouts usually last less than thirty seconds and a few might last a minute. Wrestlers do not bad mouth other fighters at any time. The judges who decide close matches are stable owners themselves and the decision on who won may be against their own fighter.

            Compare that to the way our Congress used to act. They would give fiery speeches about the other party’s position or even against someone in their own party. Afterwards they would all go to a local bar, or the pool, spa, or some other place for bi-partisan fun. On weekends they played ball with the teams having mixed parties. Courtesies were real and not feigned.

            Today Congress is without any real courtesy and resembles a full contact wrestling match where the opponent is to be beaten to a pulp and verbally abused before and after. Congress used to be in session five days each week so they got together on weekends. Now they leave for home on Thursdays and when not in session they are on the phones drumming up money usually besmirching the other party or even their colleagues. Bi-partisan laws were common and good for all Americans.

N.I.M.B.Y.

09 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by in Ecology

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            “Not in My Backyard” is a very understanding feeling because a person’s property is protected by the Constitution. I live in a very rural subdivision with two cornfields within five hundred feet. I would be very upset if a sandpit opened in one of the fields. I would probably be concerned if a 30 inch gas or oil pipeline was put off the end of my backyard. I can even make it a vertical concern by not wanting our local airport to be expanded to take large jets since I would be under the glide path for landings. I wouldn’t want a pollution spewing industry to locate west of me. All of this is obvious and understandable especially if I don’t get compensated for the inconvenience.

            Here is the moral problem. A huge deposit of copper lies under a Sonora Desert Canyon which is the most sacred place for the Apache Nation. People think the mine should go forth because it is an Indian place but how would they feel if it was the Vatican or Bethlehem? Pennsylvania has the world’s biggest reserves of natural gas but the northeastern states don’t want more pipelines causing them to import liquefied natural gas and propane from Trinidad when existing lines couldn’t supply enough. To get that gas in Pennsylvania and the oil and gas in the Permian and the Dakotas we need to use special sand. Some of that sand is across the road from Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. We have foolishly become dependent on plastics, gasoline, nitrogen fertilizer and hundreds of other products made from petroleum and coal. Getting those fuels out of the ground for our use require destroying or damaging the subsurface, surface, water ways, and air — so who in their right mind wants that damage inflicted on them?

            Every day people are being sued to gain access to their property so the rest of us can benefit. It is easy to say we need to do it if it isn’t going into my backyard!

Sensible Questions

09 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by in FEMA

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            Hurricane Ian brings up several questions that won’t be answered or adjustments made. Greed and politics will win out over commonsense and the lives of people.

            Most of the people who died and most of the homes destroyed were mobile homes. In most states mobile homes must be anchored to the pad so it will not blow over. I noticed many of the mobile homes in Fort Meyers were either not anchored strongly enough or not at all. Some rolled over and over while others were blown apart. The first question is, should zoning restrict mobile homes from coastal areas in Florida and other Gulf states? The Fort Meyers homes were older. Some appeared to be decades old. New ones can cost as much as a hundred thousand or more. Closing parks and keeping them off a private lot would be a legal nightmare and probably political suicide.

            Another question is, should FEMA and other agencies continue to pay for storm damage over and over. Barrier Islands are called that for a reason, so why were a few thousands apartments, condos, houses, and hotels allowed to be built on them. New Orleans is a bowl lower than the Mississippi River and sea level. Why should we keep footing the bill every time these areas are hit by a hurricane?

            Global warming is making the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf warmer. This makes hurricanes stronger. Harvey and Ian dumped 20 – 50 inches of rain causing historic floods. Category 4 and 5 winds are said to occur once in a thousand years but those are becoming common because of the warm water. Ian was over 88 degree water when it hit Fort Meyers.

            Another question is, why can’t we spend billions on protection of reduced population coastal communities and not on replacing damaged homes?

Mental Capacity Not A Concern

09 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by in Republican Party

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            Democrats are far from perfect. In fact their nominees were often a little questionable. The party usually does a fairly deep background check on Federal and High State Office nominees before putting money into their campaigns. They still missed and some wrong people got into office. When problems are found and exposed by the media, why do people still vote for them?

            Now we have the Republican Party supporting the biggest liars, most immoral people to ever be involved in American Politics. We knew Trump was the crooked, sexist, immoral, and racist person to ever run for President yet he got millions of people to vote for him. They have allowed him to surround himself with hundreds of people with the same moral character he has. His choice in Georgia is violent, has been married four times, paid for an abortion he says he is against, and has said he isn’t smart enough to be a Senator. In Pennsylvania they have someone who doesn’t live in the state and made his living secretly getting paid to hawk products on his television show.

            Around the country the GOP is supporting people who they wouldn’t normally support for dog catcher but are too scared of Trump’s revenge. Senate Nominee in Georgia is being backed by Newt Gingrich who said the reason he may have paid for an abortion and not remember is because he had lots of concussions affecting his mental capacity. Mental problems are not an issue in today’s Republican Party. Their last President and many around the country demonstrate their lack of concern over mental stability.