Bailout Funds.
TARP was to help out the Banks. Successful and money was returned. Gov wants to steal that money.
Stimulas 1 was a gift to every Democrat program ever suggested.
Stimulas 2 was to create jobs -- used to pay government employees and give a raise to teachers.
Jobs Program consists, so far, to expand unemployment insurance, not jobs creation.
Lessons of War Two The U.S is now engaged in the equivalant of three wars -- Iran, Afghanstan, and Haiti. At one time our defense policy called for being able to fight in
two wars and a regional conflict at the same time. Then that was cut to just two areas,
then to one. Does anyone remember that while France, England, and the Dutch were engaged
in a war in Europe, that upstart Japan decided to take that as an opportunity to occupy IndoChina, Malaya, and the East Indies? I can't take Iran and N. Korea too seriously, but then we did
not take Japan, at that time a maker of dime store toys, very seriously.
Okinawa, again. A new left-leaning Japanese government that took office in September is reassessing the U.S.-Japan alliance. The case of Futenma air station and the entire US basing on the island of Okinawa has become particularly sensitive.
People don't seem to remember that Japan started a war of agression and lost that war
and ALL of its foreign possession. The surrender established Japan as consisting of four main islands and such adjacent islands as granted by the Allied governments. Okinawa is
350 miles from the nearest of mainland Japan and this trading kingdom (US relations from 1853) was taken by Japanese conquest in 1879. The intent of the Allies had been to turn Japan (and Germany) into agricultural states -- yet each was supported into industrial nations as examples of democracy during the cold war. In 1972 Okinawa was given to Japan in return for use of mainland Japanese bases in the Korean War and Chinese agression -- bases which we already occupied. We retain stations in Germany 65 years after that war and stations in Okinawa. The Germans appreciate American benevelence.
Agitators in Japan are ungrateful and that
element (and peaceniks in America) should not be allowed to remove our bases from this area of the world.
Modern War AP Afghanistan -- "The AP reporter saw one man dressed like a farmer fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the French troops, then drop his weapon and run into a field where he disappeared into a group of villagers."
How do you fight this kind of war ? Machine gun the protective crowd in hopes of hitting him ? Arrest the
whole group of villagers ? And if you catch him, is he obviously a civilian, so read him his Miranda Rights ?
Or by the rules of war, is he obviously a solidier in civilan clothes, therefore a spy and summarily executed ?
Pity the poor GI from hometown who obviously guesses wrong.
Question? We condemn the archaic Muslim world view, specially of treatment of women. How do we
interpret this Christian Bible passage on women? We might think that Paul was having a bad day, but
he repeats with this.
TV Baseball Big league baseball on TV is disgusting. On radio you could not see something that show only
too sickeningly on TV. Every time a camera focuses on a player, he either spits or adjusts his crotch or both. Maybe TV needs a 7-second delay like radio call-in shows have so that they can cut off objectionable callers. But can baseball
find a seven- second period when a player is not being disgusting?
Where comes the money? The lush surrounding of my first visit to a race track
in Charlestown, W.Va, was impressive. But I was also impressed with the fact that the only source
of money for that luxury was that brought in by visitors, that is, the betters, so that a visit to a race
track was a losing proposition. Since then, the same logic applies to casinos, lottery, and something
that hit me last week. Where do the millions/billions of dollars in Wall Street bonuses come from?
The overhead (lushness) of the investment world has what source of funding? There may be other
sources, but I don't see from where, than the betters (investors). Therefore, are stocks a losing proposition
on average? Dividends are legitimate and a company value will increase with success. Commissions
and investor losses fund the entire stock market infrastructure. A good deal or not?
Witless Humor "About half of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detainees have no criminal record and await deportation for administrative violations." -- Sen. Charles E. Schumer. "We seem to be moving from detention to hospitality," By this logic, a bank robber is just making an undocumented withdrawal and should be put up in a hotel.
More Witless Humor berlin: "People of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long.
This is the moment when we must build a bridge to Alpha Centurti for trade that is free and fair for all." -- paraphrasing B.H. Obama.
This should earn a Nobel prize in Peace, Economics and Astronomy. No accomplishments required.
Waste and Fraud If new government programs can be funded by eliminating waste and fraud from existing
programs -- Why are we not eliminating that waste and fraud now?
Experience suggests we would end up with two programs polluted by waste and fraud.
Internet Power There is a real concern about sabotage of internet and power systems. A bill was announced that will empower the president to take emergency control of the internet (shut it down) to protect the electric grid from cyber attack. Will also force every local internet service provider to have a federally certified cyber-security person -- much like rules that every daycare center must have a nurse and dietician ruined the neighborhood stay-at-home mom nursery. By the way, the white house does
not have a cyber-security person, he quit 3-months ago and was not replaced. Great to have unqualified Feds tell us what to do. These are real concern issues, but the politicians are not qualified to address and raises fear this authority will be used to shut down dissent under various security pretences. The internet has replaced TV and newspapers as primary source of news and opinion, and second amendment level of protections must be safeguarded.
Public Schools My old employer, Rockwell-Collins is threatening to move overseas if the US education
system cannot provide sufficient technical people to select from. So much for No
Child Left Behind which slows down the class for the dumbest and of education
money going to read'en, 'riten and rations instead of 'rithmetic.
Now Health Care? Social Security is going bankrupt, so is Medicare, Medicaid, Post Office, AmTrack,
and Cash for Cars tripled in a week. Foreign relations, agriculture, education, and military affairs are in disarray.
Do we see a pattern here ?
DNA is Proof? Crime Novels beware -- scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.
“You can just engineer a crime scene".
Competence? We all knew that government was requiring banks to lend to unqualified people -- we just didn't know it could generate a world economic collapse. Something else we know is that
government is requiring jobs be filled by unqualified people to meet quotas . We just don't know what form
of collapse to our society will be generated by having less competent people in jobs. Students, fire fighters,
military officers quotas are in the news this week. Surely brain surgeons and obstetricians must also be made to more become diverse, even if unqualified, to makeup in their quota numbers; along with designers of high rise buildings, airplanes, and pipelines; and judges, legislatures and presidents. It used to be that
a person in America could become whatever their talents allowed. Now one is to be placed in positions based upon government and social requirements for diversity.
Obama's Arabian Speech A religious based world war is a possibility. If Obama can defuse that, then he will be justifiably a hero. However, more of a certainty is that he is destroying the traditional and successful American free enterprise system. FDR is remembered as beloved by some for his caring about people during the depression and of winning WW2. Fact is he prolonged the depression, permanently expanded expensive government entitlements, and it was a few selfless military men and professional officers that allowed time for American industry to gear up to win that war. We don't have the industrial base nor the warning time to win another really big war. I guess we are more dependent on Obama's diplomatic efforts than is comfortable -- it is the chance of avoiding a possibility versus the certainty of a major loss. There have to be other choices.
National Debt
The US national debt now is equal to the GNP. China holds half of that. Consider a $100,000 per year household with $100K in credit card debt and one bank
owns $50K of that household. There are many such households -- we call them irresponsible. The only thing keeping China from
making the Yuan the international reserve currency is that they hold too many dollars to destroy it. By converting US bond debt into ownership of US companies, then they can have both collateral and become the world monetary standard. Opps, we are going deeper into stimulus debt. I'll bet there is a confidential 10-year plan in the Chinese office-of-finance for gradual ownership of the USA.
Carbon Trading
Headline : "Banks will pounce on Carbon Trading. As part of an effort to tackle global warming, the Administration wants to impose caps on carbon.Those restrictions would create a national market for buying and selling carbon credits, permits to emit greenhouse gases."
Prepare yourself for the next bank bubble bailout. Selling "rights to pollute" is so stupid that I am almost at a loss of words.
Bankers seem to be among the most herd-like of businessmen, so if the Fed says it is a good thing to invest in the increase of costs of doing business, they
will jump right in and loan money to troubled companies. The setting of carbon caps is almost arbitrary ; time and motion study people spent decades learning how to set fair labor standards and they are all gone now. How does one determine a standard for pollution? In fact, the risk of future limits actually encourages companies to pollute more now ( rather than to prematurely spend capital) so that they can more easily meet the future restrictions. This is much like bureaucratic managers that over-hire so they can survive layoffs.
I worried during the oil crisis if heating with the wood stove to save oil would lower my allocation if they installed usage restrictions -- such as 80% of prior years usage
or some such. Management is only comfortable making discretionary changes when there is a no risk of restrictions being imposed ! Ain't government great?
How does cap and trade work? A polluting company buys the savings made by another so as to average the total pollution to the goals. On an international scale, an industrial country must pay pastoral nations. China, the world's largest polluter (it is no longer the USA), and India (right up there) are exempt. Thus the cost to produce in the U.S. goes up, while our competitors take American jobs. AND third world dictators get rich by encouraging their people to not industrialize. Yep, government is great . . . and silly ideas is their forte.
GM vs. Ford What will be the relationship between competitors when
one on owned by a People's Government and one is commercial? Will buying decisions for the government's fleets of cars favor their own brand? Will specifications be written to favor political ideals of greenness or other popular fads?
Will contracts go to constituent states? Will lobbyists replace analysts? Will union owners continue to make the demands that ruined the once free company? Government Motors is backed by $50 Billion dollars of taxpayer money. Can a free market Ford compete in an unfree market?
North Korea We know that news is filtered. For example, everything
about the middle east is presented from the Israeli perspective and we can
interpret the reports accordingly. But can North Korea be as bad as the press
reports? I don't know of any interest groups filtering this issue. We will never again be tied down in a land war in those mountains and will only act with approval of Red China. In that case, I hope we give the people of the north a
fair warning to get out before we destroy the strategic military capability of that (seemingly) dangerous government.
Note, in WW2 we dropped leaflets over Japanese cities targeted for destruction.
Of course, the authorities said they were just propaganda to disrupt production. Wrong!
Representation So we are to have representation for illegals on the Supreme Court of the land. Frankly I would prefer looking forward to American ideals rather than to perpetuate the lifestyle of retched refuse.
Efficiency Requirements You do realize that if Obama's more efficient cars program announced today will mean a $1,300 increase to the price of each car. If effective, this will cause every governor to raise gas taxes to compensate for reduced fuel tax income and that this will result in no fuel cost saving to the purchaser of these new cars that cost more. And that new, lighter cars will be less safe.
More expensive, less safe, higher operating cost cars. Yep, progress.
Print It. "World leaders may be able to bail out the banks by printing money, but you can't bail out a generation by printing diplomas. It takes hard earned science and engineering skills to devise real solutions.". -- Dean Kamen.
The fabulous 50's were created by GI's-returned to college by the GI-Bill with a no-nonsense approach to study and work on real world things -- "not just from flipping other people's money, flipping houses, or flipping burgers."
Engrandize the news. A man lied on his application to enter the US and his
citizenship was revoked in 2002. He is accused of murder of 29,000 Jews and others, Do the arithmetic -- he was a guard and aged twenty.
Name a Flu Egypt is slaughtering all pigs because the current flu epidemic is called swine flu, although no animals are infected.
What if it were properly named "Mexican influenza"?
Outbreaks are normally named after the location where first reported -- Spanish flu, 1918-20, Asian 1957-58, Hong Kong 1968-69, Fijian 2003-04, and now, Mexican 2009-10.
Marque Several years ago Ron Paul suggested we issue Letters of Marque to deal with pirates !!!
This is in the Constitution, right up front in Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11.
Sounds good to me, let Blackwater have a go at it.
Mortgage Backed Securities A man applies for a mortgage. The bank makes a profit. It sells it to a bigger bank that
makes a profit, which sells it to a mortgage packager, who makes a profit, who sells it to financial institutions that make a profit . . .and all the associated insurance companies and dealers make a profit. The only source of money here is the home buyer making monthly payments. Does not all this profit-taking suggest that the rate charged to the original home buyer is too much?
Madoff It looks like the Madoff, the ponzi-man, may get off ; he is still free and is being offered a plea. If so, one must recognize two approaches to encouraging
proper behaviour. Either oversight, bureaucracy, mommy spying on the kids ; or fear, damnation, prison or spanking.
It is a bit cheaper and more productive to have people voluntarily behave. This means understanding the consequences of bad behavior. Madoff should be executed or given life at hard labor as an example of consequence of taking
the past work and future lives of massive numbers of people. Else, we provide jobs and costs of innumerable accounting clerks to file and read reports and let clever crooks with accountants find ways to hide their behavior and lawyers to avoid the consequences. [ Later, I am surprised , after weeks of freedom, he was finally denied bail.]
Imports "Washington -- Roughly one-fourth of the nation's kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023. The ethnic shifts in school enrollment are most evident in the Western States [and Iowa} which are seeing an influx due to immigration and higher birth rates."
It is great that all these kids are getting an education to be better able to vote for their constituents. And they are getting a balanced diet, too. Feeding the poor is now a function of the school system -- cafeterias are now being kept open
during non-class days to assure the nutrition continues. Of course California (47%) is going bankrupt, but it is worth it . . . "for the children". Meanwhile, American schoolers are warned it is unsafe to travel to Mexico. No wonder all these people want to be in
a land of milk and honey, security , and public services.
Of course, we should be bringing in the mothers, children, and men of Darfur -- "who just want to work", too. They can do work that millions of laid off Americans don't want.
Can those who got us in, get us out? Feds want to nationalize banks so that the same people who got us into this mess and cannot be expected to get us out. But Congress with the Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to make bad loans.
Congress is the same people who got us into this mess and cannot be expected to get us out.
GM Stimulus Package The President is trying to create 3 million jobs. A $787 Billion stimulus package will cost
a quarter million dollars for every job created. GM wants $8 Billion more ... and in return is going to eliminate 40,000 jobs. Is this arithmetic right, they want $200,000 for every job eliminated? Isn't there something backwards here? And wrong on both counts?
Racism In my freshman year at college, five decades ago, a newspaper article said that my school refused to tell how many negro students were enrolled -- as if that were a sin. A mix of colors was evident
in classes, but Penn State had no idea how many negros were enrolled. They did not differentiate students
and had no record. But in the interests of equality and racially sensitive, now a'days everybody is categorized.
What is the definition of racism -- an over awareness of race? Now we have a racism that didn't exist five decades ago. Which is better?
Global Warming? The earth has come out of a 98,000-year Ice Age and is only 10,000 years into an interglacial warming period. Within the epoch cycles there are little cycles that last a few hundred years. A thousand years ago Greenland was green (Eric the Red). Seven hundred years ago there was a "little ice age" that allowed building a hotel on the Baltic Sea to serve coach traffic across the ice. Pilgrims reported snow in June. That little ice age is considered to have ended about the time of the American Civil War. We are warming from a cold snap within interglacial warming. Of course there is global warming! Before it is over, if the last interglacial is a guide, we should see Florida south of Orlando become Gulf ; southern weather come to the middle states ; and trees replace tundra north of the Arctic Circle. See more detail.
Shortest Distance to Europe. I think I learned in school that the shortest distance between N. America and Europe was the Robeson Channel, 11 to 18 miles wide, between Canada's Elesmere Island and Greenland. (During August, it is usually navigable by icebreakers.)
Wrong ! Greenland is part of N. America. Iceland, 172 miles away, is considered Europe.
Technically Iceland is not part of either of the continental plates and Wikipedia says it divides Iceland at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. [See bridge between continents.]
In 1946, the United States offered to buy Greenland from Denmark for $100,000,000, but Denmark refused to sell. In 2008 Greenland voted to become a separate country within the Kingdom of Denmark, effective June 2009. [Current history, change the maps again.]
Stimulus or Holiday The optimal financial stimulus is a tax holiday -- this gives a bigger return than any
government program.
Give a company $1 and it becomes $1.10. Pay $1 in taxes and get 59 cents back. So we save 41 cents by letting people keep their money in the first place and let them determine which businesses deserve to prosper. But, governments want to say who gets the benefit . The priority is corporations, groups, or individuals that donate reelection funds.
The second priority is voters, however, taxpayers are not the politicians target market. Politicians
want money to go first to non-tax payers, the deserving poor (all poor are deserving, including ne'r-do-wells, druggies, lazy, sickly, incompetent, or just unlucky.) The legislative logic is that it is cheaper to buy votes of poor people than it is to buy the vote of working (rich) people.
Grant or Loan The new spending program increases grants to students. I favor funding for college -- puts money into economy right away, takes students out of the current labor market, makes for a better
future economy -- witness the success of GI Bill post-WW2 that led to the Fabulous Fifties instead of a
depression that normally follows wars as unemployed soldiers return. But I prefer the money be in form of loans. Recall that college loans dried up with the current economic collapse. The government should revitalize college loan programs
whereby money comes back in a few years to fund the next round of students. Equally important, college graduates feel that they have paid their own way through college and not give the idea that government handouts are a right.
Retirement Security FDR inauguration took place on Saturday, March 4, 1933. Executive Order 6102 was signed on April 5, 1933, thirty two days later,
"forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates."
It required all persons to deliver on or before May 1, 1933 all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve.
Massive government spendings must be paid with taxes. Are there
other sources of money? (2) The U.S. government devalued the U.S. dollar by 41% in 1934; this decreased the value of all savings. (3) Inflation : the average inflation rate since gold was devalued has been 3.9%. ( But only 2.4% for last decade ; Carter mismanagement years was 10.7%. ) Inflation has the effect of raising prices and destroying savings by that same amount. (4) War Bonds -- citizens loan money to the government at 4% while WW2 inflation averaged 5.6%; a gift of 1.6% by citizens. (5) National Sales Tax. A tax by any other name is still a tax by raising personal costs and reducing standard of living.
(6) Billions of retirement dollars exist in clearly identified IRA accounts reported to the government. Money hunters go where the money is. Compensation would be in the form of social security. But isn't the Social Security system bankrupt already? Which brings
us to (7) Default on government obligations and reduction of S.S., etc. This cannot occur because the
government can print money. The effect is (3. Inflation:) above.
How secure is your retire fund?
Humanitarian Legislation Legislation required banks to grant mortgages to unqualified people .
This social extravagant led to a collapse of previously reliable mortgage backed securities.
When this error reached a critical point, savings and retirement funds were decimated and a world-wide depression resulted. Legislative social excess concerning immigration will cause collapse of state and local governments. California, a center for immigration, is now bankrupt. What does this mean -- taxpayers, ie. real people, will have their taxes increased and standard of living fall. We have already seen many measurements of the nation's fall -- health, crime, education, morphology, and longevity issues.
The impact is not always obvious. Unhealthy arrivals require public medical services. On the surface, tax money goes to improving the well being of people. It also cause taxes to go up. It returns risk from diseases previously eliminated from the nation. It causes additional personal and public expense for medical security. It cause reduces life expectancy. It cause insurance rates to go up.
If humanitarian legislation is carried to a logical end and the wealth of nations is to be extended globally,
the US standard of living will fall from $48,000 per person to $10,500 That is, 80% of your money will go
to provide equal services to the world. There is no free lunch -- legislative improvements for others must be paid by us.
The British want their guns back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKdBxpKqUvs&feature=PlayList&p=65DCA91101B7979B&playnext=1&index=8
Boom and Bust The nature of capitalism is investment in profitable ventures. Enthusiasm can lead to
a boom, eventually to over expansion, a bubble, followed by a bust or a return to a more stable condition, tho at a higher level than before. To control the
extremes of boom and bust cycles, governments issue and withdraw money, control interest rates
and regulate through taxation.
The ultimate in government control is state ownership, centralized planning, or communism in which there is no profit in ventures, no development, and stagnation at the lowest sustainable level. Over enthusiasm for
stability and control leads to -- first a cowed people and then revolution by those desiring freedom for improvement.
Billions to the Auto Companies. The government is giving (lending) $17.4B to two failing auto companies with more promised to come .(It did.] The idea is
to pay for the lack of production during this recession. Would it not be better to give gift cards to
each tax payer towards purchase of a new American car. This would put the same money into the
auto companies, but also to allow workers to earn their pay, suppliers to provide parts, and local dealerships to do business. Plus it would put new cars in the hands of the taxpayers. And would let the free market determine
which companies are doing the best job. This adds five very useful benefits that are better than the money going into
the auto companies general fund -- including bonuses to those who conned the Congress and executives -- which handing them money does not.
Graft Define corruption. The President decided that $700 billion was required to forestall a problem. The Congress decided it was wrong. They "negotiated" payment of a 20% bribe of "pork". Now instead of a $700B waste, there is a $840B lost to the taxpayer. Is this pure corruption, graft? Is it something fundamentally wrong in the American system? This is behavior that we "tut-tut" about when we see it
in other nations or Chicago. Is it a fundamental human flaw?
Mortgage Insurance A house purchased with a down payment of less than 20% and a conventional loan (not FHA or VA), requires(-ed) Private Mortgage Insurance to protect the lender against the higher risk that the loan will default. Why is the government bailing out banks and people without insurance? We heard the stories
for years of banks afraid to turn down loans to privileged poor. Did this extend to waving insurance protection?
Can we have sympathy for anybody involved in this foolishness? This includes Congress, banks, and unqualified borrowers. Should home buyers who been living above their means for years have their living space subsidized by sensible taxpayers who lived a less elegant lifestyle? Should banks and investors who traded in unsound mortgage backed securities by bailed out from their unreasonable business practices?
Solar taxi A solar powered car just completed a 32,000 mile drive around the world. Sponsored as
a vehicle of zero emissions for environmental benefit, I see it as a way to get out from under the oil cartel.
Seizure of 401K. An option being circulated in Democrat circles of the new administration is interesting.
Remember that Republicans wanted to let you put your retirement finds into private hands, ie, you would put the
tax advantaged money into mutual funds, where your retirement wealth would be funded by the national economy.
With the collapse of the stock market, this plan is dead and the reverse is being proposed. The government would
save your retirement by converting all 401K and similar funds into US Treasure Bills paying a "secure" 3%.
On retirement, you would be granted an annuity. On death
the balance reverts to the government, that is the government become the beneficiary of your retirement account.
The qualification of treasury bills being secure is that with the massive amounts of government borrowing
to bailout the recent financial crisis, stimulus payments to the public, and expected new government welfare programs,
the nation will have to print money. (The other option is raise taxes, a political no-no.) Printing money is easy to do, but brings inflation,
that is, the more dollars printed ,the less valuable each dollar becomes.
Inflation will take away part of the 3% T-Bill earnings, taxes take another part, and inflation has in the past (Carter Administration) has
exceeded 10% This means that your guaranteed 3% earnings, is really a loss of 7% to you of each dollar taken into the government retirement plan.
Hint : anyone concerned about this should transfer money from their corporate IRA and roll it over into
a private IRA account where it will be managed by you in a good mutual fund -- growth, income, or fixed -- at your desecration and
where it will be more difficult for the government to seize and where you will get the income and your final estate will go to whomever you desire.
To the rest of 2008 Blog Iowa Caucus There is an opportunity for special interests to concentrate their efforts in the Iowa Caucus to influence choice of national candidates. Unfortunately, candidates must stress their support or opposition to this limited number of lobbyists, forcing the candidate to prostitute their avowed positions. Some of these are foolish -- ethanol, welfare, abortion, Israel, homosexuals, hunting, and separation come to mind.
Ethanol costs as much as it saves ; welfare creates welfare collectors ; abortion is a private matter ; all Israel all the time is not all to US interest ; homosexuals want paid benefits for roommates ; guns are to keep the government under control, not animals ; the constitution says not to impose religion, not exclude ; send criminals to jail, but sending them back to the streets is cheaper.
Jim