The cost of government

"Our government spends money like water. Any why not? It is free money (so they think...)"

I think most of us have heard the old saying, "Only government could screw up screwing in a light bulb." Ain't that the truth! Today in the paper were two articles side by side demonstrating just how bad our state government operates. How people which work within government have zero concept of cost control. And why should they? It is after all, free money.

It seems that before Duane Benson left his job on the Stadium Commission, he foretold of looming cost overruns. "Nonsense!" shouted the political hack who is in charge of this mess. Well today it was disclosed that maybe Mr. Benson was correct. It seems there is a $15M bill looking for a home. And Mortenson Construction (the prime contractor), does not feel like eating it. So they are asking for mediation to get it resolved.

I have written about this before. Mortenson Construction is a heavy duty player. They have been around the block. They build big things and do it well. The Stadium Commission is loaded with political hacks, especially at the top. In fact, the #2 person, Michelle Helm, is much more concerned about why her enormous salary is not as enormous as Fritz's kid's salary. Meanwhile, it seems that nobody involved knew how to write a contract which addressed cost containment. The net result is having orphaned expenses looking for a home. But so what? It is after all, free money.

Then there was the article about the $30M increase in the train to nowhere (aka SWLRT). The brand new head of the Met Council, another political hack, is no more qualified to run giant projects like this than any other Tom, DICK, or Harry. But who cares? His wife is tucked under the Governor's wing. And the Governor likes choo-choo trains. So where did this $30M come from? Maybe accounting gimmicks. Maybe it was never considered in the first place. Maybe lousy contracting. You have a group of 17 people, hand picked by our trust fund Governor, who has never held a job with P+L responsibilities . How did you expect this would turn out?

One more thing before I finish my morning rant. It seems that Maryland (a deep blue state) is going after vendors who worked on their version of MNSure - and failed to live up to contractual obligations. A couple of Republican legislators sent a letter to our Governor asking why we are not doing the same. And this is not chump change - Maryland is going after $45M (I am sure ours is bigger).

The question I must ask is far more basic. Why does a letter need to be sent to the CEO of our state to get this resolved? Is there nobody running the MNSure Program who knows what they are doing? Who knows how to read a contract? Is this another political hack who is no more knowledgeable than any other person? And how much are we paying this hack for doing nothing?

All three of these examples show one thing very clearly - no accountability. The skill set of many people I have worked with in government has been amazingly low. And money (our money) keeps pouring in, getting spent, and often times poorly. The cost of government is inefficiency. It is blatant, unfixable, inefficient madness. And it will NEVER improve until we demand an end to political cronyism. Political cronyism which leads to money wasting organizations like the Met Council and the Stadium Commission. 

The Fourth vs. Bluffdale

"Have we stumbled into the age of 'Big Brother is watching?' Lately it sure seems that way..."

I sure enjoyed the wee bit of a dust up last night between Governor Christie and Senator Paul. Why did I like it? It peeled back the onion on one of the most interesting and provocative issues of our time. Ever since 9/11, and the subsequent passing of the Patriot Act, there has been a national tug of war between our sacred Fourth Amendment and National Security. And this issue is no different today than it was 10 years ago.

And what does our Fourth Amendment have to do with the sleepy little town of Bluffdale, Utah? A bit of refresher first. NSA has just opened a brand new data collection facility in Bluffdale, Utah. And it is a beast. It cost the taxpayers over $2B and has more computing and storage capacity that one could shake a stick at (or ever imagine).

Two years ago, I wrote this about the yet to be opened Bluffdale facility -

SingularityHub.com states in a November of 2012 edition:

Control Data Corporation's first supercomputer, the CDC 6600, operated at a speed of three megaflops. A half century later, the most powerful supercomputers are a billion times faster. But ever that impressive mark will inevitably fall. Engineers are eyeing an exaflop (a quintillion operations a second) and some think we will be there by 2018.

Wow, kapow! And it is rumored that major breakthrough will happen in Bluffdale. So if this is correct, the biggest, baddest computing device on the planet will reside in Utah. This new facility will have enough computing and storage capacity to track EVERYTHING on EVERYONE at ALL TIMES. Get the message? This ability of this agency which often goes dark, to track and record everything about everyone, runs smack dab into our Fourth Amendment rights. And ergo, the dust up last night between Governor Christie and Senator Paul.

Many are looking for an Occam's Razor solution to this question. Sorry - it does not exist. We are however, left with this quandary - how do we keep bad guys at bay, who want to end us, and still keep and cherish our basic freedoms? That I believe is the 64,000 dollar question going into the 2016 elections.

So stay tuned folks. As Bluffdale continues to gather (they might even have this post by now!), Constitutional scholars will continue to ponder. Nobody wants to be responsible for letting the lone bad guy through who has a suitcase nuke or a dirty bomb. By the same token, nobody wants to be the architect of a modern day 1984 society. 

More very important discussions on this topic will continue as we head deeper into the 2016 election season. As was often said on the TV show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, "This is good stuff Maynard!"    

Another Déjà vu (all over again)....

"Is he capable? I think so. Is he a nice guy? Depends who you ask. Can he win? Now that - is the question..."

During the last political season, Mike McFadden came to address our BPOU before the endorsement convention. I liked him. He spoke well, had some good ideas, and so forth. But I had to ask him one burning question. It was a rumor I had heard, and I wanted to hear Mike dispel that rumor in front of all our SD31 red meat eaters. I asked him if he would abide by the endorsement. He said "Sure - if he was the one endorsed." That answer went over like stomach gas in church.

Last night when Donald Trump was asked the same question he gave a Mike McFadden type of answer. I think it is good to have a strong ego to run for this type of office. And to be frank, Donald Trump got to where he is today by being Donald Trump. Sometimes people get bloody noses dealing with Trump. But this endorsement thing is a big deal with me. A few governor races ago, Tom Horner (a Republican) decided he did not want to abide by the endorsing convention. He went third party. He split the vote. He (because of splitting the vote) gave us our current governor.

Here is a fact of life. A birds and bees issue. If the Republican Party is fractured in 2016 by Trump running as a third party candidate, we will end up with President Clinton. It will be another déjà vu (all over again). How so? In 1990, a little rich guy from Texas decided to take a long simmering feud with the Bush family to the polls. Instead of supporting Bush against this young upstart from Arkansas, Perot (a life long Republican) went third party. He split the vote and we ended up getting William Jefferson Blythe Clinton as our President. In 2016 should Trump split our vote, we will then get his wife as our next President.

There are quite a few things I like about Trump. His willingness to split the party over his ego is not one of them. If he does it, and if that is the winning factor for Hillary, Trump will become a pariah to many in the party. He will become persona non grata to many who supported him in the past. As far as myself, if he causes us to lose this next most important election, he will be dead to me. I will not give him a time of day at 12 noon.

One more thing. And this is a big one. Most of us agree this Democratic made up "war on woman" is about as phony as a rubber banana. So when Trump was asked by Megan last night about some things he had said in the past about women, he handled it poorly. Very poorly. In fact Debbie "Blabbermouth" (as Rush calls her) was invited to be there last night as guest. When asked at the end of the debate what she thought, one of the first words out of her mouth was "misogynistic". Trump had just given Ms. Schultz a brand new log to put on that fire.

Going forward it will be interesting to see what happens. I think Trump can recover from any foibles last night if (and only if) he LISTENS to some wise advisers. He needs to say he will not only abide by the endorsement process, he will vigorously support and campaign for whomever that person is. If he said some things in the past that are regrettable, say so, and then apologize. Sometimes in the world of high business nasty things get said in the heat of battle. Talk about the future and not the past.

Before I get any phone calls or e-mails let me say one final thing. I still like Trump. I think he can win. But he needs to fix a couple of tires on his campaign bus which need some air. If he does not fix those tires, they will go flat. And if they go flat, his campaign bus will go nowhere. 

Skin in the game

"The way we have treated Israel in these sham negotiations is beyond shame. This was so typical Obama and Kerry..."

One of the things I learned in the world of business was a very simple axiom. The best deals are crafted by those who have skin in the game. You need to be invested. You need to enjoy the benefits of a deal done right and suffer the consequences of a deal gone bad. Seems simple to most of us, right? How does this relate to the current Iran nuke deal? If doesn't.

A person who was trying to infuse logic into these negotiations might first ask a basic question. Who has the most skin in the game? Well, if we take the Iranians at their word, it would be Israel and the United States. Next up would be nation states in the neighborhood who are predominantly Sunni. Nations like Saudi Arabia. Nations like Jordan. Nations like Egypt. Whereas Iran is most Shia, many of its neighboring countries are Sunni.

Even though the feuding between Shia and Sunni is ancient, the object of Iran's most visceral wrath is Israel. Many times, almost too many to count, the government of Iran has not only discredited Israel, but also questioned their very right to exist. In fact, many times Iran has offered to be the instrument of Israel's destruction. And yet, Israel was not at the negotiation table. They have no right of acceptance nor refusal of the terms. They are being treated as an uninterested observer by the United States and the United Nations. Why? 

The irony of these negotiations is that the United States also has skin in the game. We are threatened almost daily by the Iranian government. Crowds in the street of Tehran chant "Death to America!" During the negotiations they mocked up a ship to look like the USS Nimitz. And then they tried to sink it. Our President, who is now trying to sell this POS agreement to the people who would ratify it has said, "it is this agreement or we will have some kind of war". What a false choice by a false man!

Here is how this could play out should enough mind numbed robots in the House and Senate vote to support and pass this flawed agreement. Israel, Egypt, Saudi and possibly others will form an alliance. Since this agreement gives the Iranians the "green light" to produce nukes, and since Iran has proven many times to be untrustworthy, war will be the only option. All hell will break loose in the Middle East as this new alliance will attack Iran's nuke facilities with everything they have. Iran will then retaliate. The Middle East will then become a cauldron boiling over. The false choice our President gave us will then come to fruition.

One final thing to consider. The worst kept secret in the Middle East is that Israel has nukes. They have had them for years, and they are in Israel for only one reason. If it ever looked like Israel was going to suffer total defeat leading to total its annihilation, Israel would launch.

If Mr. Kerry was not cognizant of that fact, he should have been. He also should have known that one simple question: Who does, and who does not, have skin in this most important game.

   

Shifting resources

"How big is the Duluth Complex? Very, very large and the minerals contained there are in high demand in a growing world market..."

Most of us by now have read about or seen on the news what is happening up at Lake Mille Lacs. One of our great resources, Walleye fishing is in deep, deep trouble on that magnificent lake. However, this is not the first time Walleye fishing has been in trouble. Red Lake had to be shut down for 7 years to get the stock replenished. Nett Lake up by Ore also was in in trouble at one time. Right now, Mille Lacs is a mess and everybody up there is mad and finger pointing is in full bloom.

That led me to think about our state resources. What do we have for resources these days? Even though Mille Lacs is shut down for the rest of the season, we still have a wonderful tourism industry. Many, many good lakes with a ton of fish in them are still open for business. We have a huge agri-business industry. Lots of corn, lots of soybeans, and other crops. Some fields run as far as the eye can see. We also have a well managed and sustainable lumber industry. And dare I mention it, we have a boat load of yet to be mined minerals.

By an accident of nature, as well as millions of years of geologic development, one of the largest untapped mineral deposits in the world sits under Northeast Minnesota - the Duluth Complex. It is big. It is so big, as we keep discovering, it seems to gets bigger all the time. And what does it contain? Mostly copper-nickel. Lots and lots of copper-nickel. Plus it is thought to also contain titanium, gold and yes, even diamonds. 

And now here is the rub. It is located under one of the most pristine areas of the state. Unlike the Bakken Oil Fields in North Dakota which are located in the middle of nowhere, this resource is located under an environmentally sensitive area of the state. A mining accident where toxins could be spilled without control would be catastrophic. However, if the mining was done right, we could tap this resource thereby bringing in thousands of jobs and billions of dollars into our state. And do it without ruining the wilderness of our northland.

It will be interesting to see how our Governor addresses this vast mineral deposit in the final months of his (hopefully only) term. Will he be like our President and choose to shutter an industry based solely on the environment? Will he see any middle room where Poly Met and the "Greenies" can work together? My feeling on this is simple. As much as I love that part of the state (and I love it deeply), they need good paying jobs up there. Our taconite industry has become spotty. And the main reason for that is all the dumping our good friend China is doing.

As far as iron ore resources are concerned, we are yesterday's news. Sad to say, we really are. The new iron ore power brokers are Brazil, China, Russia and India. However, the minerals contained in the Duluth Complex are a much different story. They could make us a world player in the extraction and sale of copper-nickel resources. A big time world player.

Minnesota continues to be a state of vast opportunity, natural resources, and natural beauty. In these days of shifting resources, it pays to be nimble. We owe it to ourselves, and we sure owe it to our kids and grandchildren. Time to be smart on this one.

The tipping point (again + again)

"The hated coal. The stuff which has made our country great. Kept millions from freezing. Now our President hates it and wants it dead..."

Here we go again. Mr. "I have a pen and a phone" is going to try an end run on Congress so he can get our climate change "fixed". We will have reached a tipping point once again. But our tipping point involves more than just our President. It is this entire leftist way of thinking. So before I get into our energy killing President, a quick story.

In Sunday's paper was a fairly good article about baby boomers buying RVs. Some very modest, some not so modest, and some giant 5th wheels. We have friends who have owned them. We have toyed with (and still are) doing some RV travel. Ever since I was a kid in 1954 and saw the movie staring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, The Long, Long Trailer, I thought that owning a trailer would be a great way to see America.

But hold the phone. For every buzz, there is usually a buzz killer. Yesterday in the paper was an editorial letter penned by some loon living in Grand Marais. The letter went on to say that baby boomers who own RVs are selfish and stealing the environment away from the next generation. RVs, like coal powered energy plants, are carbon footprint cheaters. They pollute just so "people of privilege" can see the countryside at the expense of others. Yes, it is chapter one from the famous liberal play book. The "zero sum" game. You have to lose so I can win. 

Now back to our President. I will give him credit for one thing. Even though few took him seriously while he was campaigning, he did threaten to kill our coal industry. And he is succeeding. This new rule he wants enacted is a whopper. It would cut emissions from power plants by 32% from 2005 levels to 2030 levels. That is even greater than the 30% cut he wanted earlier. Should this unconstitutional action survive the courts, the sequence of events will be devistating.

First off, we still get anywhere from 25% to 30% of our total energy from coal. By eliminating coal, the deficit will have to be made up from something. And since 2030 is only 15 1/2 years away, that "something" does not exist today. We have tinkered at the margins with renewable energy. But we will need a whole lot more "tinkering" for evolving technologies to plug all the holes in our energy dyke.

The next thing that will happen is we will arrive at 2030 with inadequate energy resources. Brown outs will be normal. Possibly black outs in some areas of the country. The cost of electricity will be through the roof. The poor will not be able to afford basic power. Progressives in Congress, feeling responsible for this mess, will agree that this is not fair. The poor should receive subsidies for this now very expensive commodity. And the subsidies will be paid for by - you guessed it - the rest of us.

But by that time, there will not be enough of "the rest of us" to pick up the slack. The economy will teeter and then fall. Our economy was made strong by cheap, abundant energy. And it will fall from the lack of it. All this because of a leftist myth called "man-made global warming".

Keep a sharp eye on this one folks. Watch to see how the states react. If this regulation stands, it will hurt us long after Obama is gone. Obama's fundamental transformation of our country is almost complete. And we will never be great again, never be rich again, should this succeed.  

Fame and fortune

Without a doubt, Walter Palmer, during the month of July, has become the most famous "dentist in Minnesota..."

How many of us remember when we were growing up being asked what we wanted out of life. Many responded by saying, "I want to be rich and famous!" And truthfully, very few of us achieve either. Oh, many end up in the "higher than normal" category for income, but rich? Not hardly. And famous is a whole different ball game. To become famous might be a bit different than what we thought as kids.

If I asked right now who one of the most famous people in America is, what do you think the answer would we? Of if I asked more specifically, who one of the most famous people in Minnesota, then what do you think the answer would be? Hint: he is a dentist. Yes, Walter Palmer is the most famous man in Minnesota right now. Probably one of the more famous people in America. And he would love to trade all that fame a heartbeat.

Here is the irony about fame. Many times to become famous, you need to become a pariah. A "bad guy". Look at James Holmes, the theater shooter from Aurora, Colorado. Before 2012, he was a nobody. No fame what-so-ever. However, because he went into a movie theater, and shot up a bunch of innocent people, he became instantly famous. Instead of being a mass murderer, should he have been a person who help build 100 homes for Habitat for Humanity, doing something very good for society, nobody outside of a few in Aurora would have ever heard of him.

Back to our Edina dentist, Dr. Palmer. Let us suppose for a minute that Dr. Palmer instead of trophy hunting decided to donate a month every summer and go to Africa. While in Africa, he would do pro bono dental work on impoverished African children. Just like many of the doctors who volunteer with Operation Smile, or Doctors without Borders. They do more good than one could ever imagine. And who hears of them? Very few. But Dr. Palmer, who shot a lion nobody that few here ever heard of, in a country many can't find on a map, is now famous beyond belief.

Many people who have become famous due to Hollywood, politics, sports, or whatever, say the same thing. They miss the days they were a nobody. It was nice just to go out in public and blend in with the crowd. Not having to wear sunglasses and hats to conceal your identity. No, being famous is not what it is cracked up to be. 

I have a feeling that Dr. Palmer would trade places with just about anyone of us right now. And unlike the Aurora movie shooter, what Dr. Palmer did was not really "wrong". But it was wrong enough within the PC crowd to generate hate against this dentist. Even some death threats. Fame, Dr. Palmer might say - you can have it.