How to become a high tax state

"Another way to become a high taxed state is to take a cavalier attitude about holes in the budget. In particular, fraud, waste and abuse." 

Listen up you westerners from South Dakota and Wyoming. You also Nevada, Texas and Florida. Plus anyone else who lives in a low or no tax state. Becoming a high tax state is not very hard at all. All you need do is take your foot off the brake and hit the accelerator as hard as possible. Then you need a soulless, shameless home town news rag which keeps reminding the minions we are a "high tax AND high service state." What does that mean? Stay tuned.

For a Democrat, becoming a high service state is simply handing out money like candy. Ever wonder why this state has become a mecca  for 150,000 Somalis? Hint: It ain't the weather. Ever wonder why when some crime gangster gets busted, he or she often times has come here from Detroit or Chicago? The reputation of our largest city in neighboring states is in the nickname - "Moneyapolis". That once fine city has become such a welfare magnet, a drive through the Cedar Riverside area is like a drive though a different country.

I know, I know. We spend most of our money on education. How is that working out? Never seems like enough, and since most districts have trouble with math when it comes to budgeting, the hand is always out for more. And more. And more. What the state does need is a re-do on how we educate. Better product for less money. GASP! Yes, that is blasphemy in a state which is controlled and run by Education Minnesota.

Another way to become a high taxed state is to take a cavalier attitude about holes in the budget. In particular, fraud, waste and abuse. One fine Democrat law maker, when confronted by how much health and human services money seems to vanish into thin air every year, was non-pulsed. "Oh there is fraud in everything these days. We can never control all of it." With that, she went on her way. I wonder if she would feel the same if someone was phishing $100 out of her checking account each month.

Minnesota can serve as an example - a bad example. This state is ripe for change, for a new direction. But so long as you have statists and socialists running the legislature, we will be stuck in the tax and spend ditch. Are we getting a good bang for the buck in this state? Not a bit. The "bang" is more like a soft "pop". 

  

False flag, or red flag

"We no not want war. But if the Dogs of War are itching to get out in Iran, bring it on. We will make it quick, but maybe not that painless."

Okay. After listening to Fox News on the way home from more flower and plant shopping, I was a bit taken back. It seems our State Department has issued a "get out of Dodge" warning for any American (other than combat ready assets), who is living in Iraq. Why? It seems that intel (which we are not privy of), has exposed a threat of the gravest danger. In fact, the warning from the State Department stated, (my paraphrase), "leave or be kidnapped or killed". Wow! From Iran!

We are going to war! We have the USS Lincoln task force, a bomber wing composed of the ancient, yet effective B-52's, in the theater. With all that fire power, we are ready to kick butt and take names! Only one small problem however - the Brits say there is no threat. And the Democrats in the House agree with the Brits.

Not to bring this up again, but as a retired Naval Officer with a high level security clearance, when there is a bunch of smoke, there usually is some kind of fire. We (the public) knows about 10% (or less) of what is going on. The rest (if real), the government knows.

The Iranians believe this is a False Flag, put up by the Americans. My take - maybe, but doubtful. Too many leaky wickets to go through in our government to let this remain a ruse (or False Flag). My feeling - where there is a whole lot of smoke, there is at least some smoking timbers. 

Was this some kind of trap to lure one of our prized carriers into an ambush? I know of some of the ship defenses for the carrier group, but not all of them. Even the ones I know of could be a good deterrent for anti-ship missiles, hyper sonic or not. But even if they landed a punch, knock out, or whatever - the return volley would put an end to the land once known as the Persian Empire.

Back to the question. False Flag or Red Flag. It is unlikely the United States would pull this kind of ruse on our allies and the world-wide media. Possible? Yes. Probable? No. My advice is to stay close to the news the next day or so. If there is smoke under those embers, they will ignite fast. If if is just a False Flag, it will soon fade into history.

What I would give to have my clearance back (if I had the right ticket). Do I think we are going to war with Iran? Not unless they are nuts. But we have seen once the Shah was deposed - they can be nuts. 

We do not want war. But if the Dogs of War are itching to get out in Iran, bring it on. We will make it quick, but maybe not that painless.

The needle in our arms...

"Would we be paying more for things made here rather than in China? Absolutely. But they would NOT be made by kids in a sweat shop."

Relax folks - this has nothing to do with drugs - sort of. Unless you consider our dependence on China a drug. Flash back in time about 40 years or so. Some folks had a bumper sticker which read "Buy a foreign car and help 10 Americans lose their jobs". Back then it made some sense. Toyota and Honda were made in Japan. Euro brands were made in Europe. American cars were made here. Today however, that bumper sticker would make little sense, as parts of cars are made in many parts of the world.

Flash forward to now. Over the years, the globalist tug has been for us to be massive world traders. Only one small problem. We allowed the playing field to be very tipped. We allowed much of our manufacturing to be outsourced to developing countries who were hungry for it. As such, we started to develop trade deficits. First smallish, then not so smallish. China, who was the receiver of much of our outsourcing, developed a HUGE trade surplus with us. And they were just about as happy as a clam in doing so.

All of a sudden, when we look around our houses, our places of business, our whatever, and we can see one common sight - "Made in China". Having Chinese "stuff" has become a drug for us. A needle in our arm. And because China comes outside out OSHA rules, it has been thought for years that China uses child labor in modern day "sweat shops." Plus, they are world class polluters. Bottom line? We get lots of stuff very cheap. Not very well made at times, but cheap.

Besides developing one heck of a trade surplus with us, there was another benefit for China. Out and out theft. First let me say this. When a company comes up with a better mousetrap, it is covered by patent. It is fair game for others to try and reverse engineer parts of it, so long as the patent is not infringed. HOWEVER - when level 3 drawings (which is the recipe for how to make an item) are sent to China and then copied or stolen - that is a different story. China has been doing this to us for years, and we have complained at times - but little else.

Enter Donald Trump. He has seen this needle in our arm for years, and hates it. Does he hate China? Not a bit. He would like to trade with China - it is after all, a huge market. But he wants fair and reciprocal trading. He sent our best and brightest to try and broker a fair trade agreement. We almost got there, but all of a sudden, China reneged on some very important points. So it fell apart, and we ended up putting tariffs on each other.

The other day, I put something on social media which drew some fire. I said I liked buying American goods made in America. That got me taken to the woodshed by some friends. One person told me I did not know what I was talking about, as the pain for some small companies will be intense - maybe fatal. No doubt it will be. But I think most former drug addicts will confess that going cold turkey to get the "needle out of the arm" can be painful. Necessary, but painful. 

Would we be paying more for things made here rather than in China? Absolutely. But they would NOT be made by kids in a sweat shop. Or they might be made in another country with better labor conditions and a more fair trade agreement. Or they could still be made in China, once we strike a better trade agreement. 

How will this saga end? Stay tuned folks, history is once again being made right in front of us. I think the President will do everything possible to mitigate the pain on our businesses. But we HAVE TO get this needle out of our arm, for once and for all. 

  

Are these the "Days of Elijah"?

"The biggest problem that many Christians have right now in this country is habitual sitting on the sidelines. In the Middle East and parts of Africa, it is open season on Christians."

Anybody else hear the Vice President's commencement address at Liberty University recently? It was not a "rah-rah" now that you have your degree, go out and change the world. No, he talked about faith. He talked about going out in this secular world. He told them they would be under attack for their faith in God. For their biblical beliefs. Even though Jesus predicted this 2,000 years ago, we are entering a period of time where Christians are fair game - even in this country.

There is a war going on right now. A war on Christianity. Nobody should be shocked when they read this - the evidence of this war is in the media on almost a daily basis.

In the past 20 years, the number of people who profess to be Christians in these United States has ranged between 75% and 85%. That includes people from devout church goers to "Christmas, Easter, and emergency" church attenders. So, if you identify with the 75% to 85% who profess to be Christians in the United States, this article if for you.

We might be very close to a real tipping point. There are more and more of the 15% to 25% who are not Christians (or Jewish) in this country, who would love to see God completely thrown out of the picture. Just the other day in Washington DC, Chairman Nadler was having a hearing in his committee. The Democrats on his committee refused to use "so help me God" when witnesses were being sworn in. When a Republican objected to not having God mentioned, Nadler dismissed his objection. 

The biggest problem that many American Christians have right now is habitual sitting on the sidelines. In the Middle East and parts of Africa, it is open season on Christians. They are being slaughtered in such numbers, you might as well call it genocide. In Europe, Christianity is all but being erased. Churches in France are being desecrated and/or burned, and the numbers of people who call themselves Christian, are dwindling. While this carnage is happening, most of us do little more than watch.

Years ago, I read a book about changing your diet. By the way, it had nothing to do with food. It had everything to do with what you read, what you watch, what you listen to, who you chum with, and how you talk. It is so easy in this secular world to start falling away. To let your faith wander, or start to dissolve. 

Christians in name only, or "catatonic" Christians, can rediscover their faith roots by changing what they read (more of the Word), what they watch (more wholesome viewing), what you listen to (many good faith based stations to choose from), who you chum with (association with fellow believers allow "iron sharpening iron"), and how you talk (clean, uplifting, and edifying language). 

A good friend of mine in another state gets together with other Christians on a weekly basis. Why? Besides some fellowship, they pray together. They pray for the safety of our troops, our first responder force, people who are hurting, or where ever the Spirit leads them. We need more of that - much, much more of that. Why? Besides changing our diet, we need to be paying sharp attention to what is going on locally, nationally, and internationally. 

These might be the days for Christians to stand for God, just like Elijah did in the Bible. Some refer to these days as the "Days of Elijah", just for that reason. Changing our diet, paying attention are starters. God will help us with the rest.  

Close to the edge

"There it is folks. Close to the edge. Very, very close. By the way, the Dems are already plotting on how to take back the Senate in 2020. Should they do that, this reprieve will be very short lived." 

I don't mean to panic anyone, but the other day I was thinking about the last election. How, partly due to the faux Russia collusion issue with our President, we ended up losing the Minnesota House, the Governor spot, and came within a whisker of losing the Senate. If we had lost the Senate, the freight train would be rolling over us right now. The train would be rolling over us, and there would be NOBODY to save the Minnesota taxpayer. Yes, we were that close to the edge.

Now the reality is sinking in for the statists. There will be no budget this session. Why not? Seems that timing is everything. First, the price of gas has gone up to about $2.80/gal from just a hair over $2.10/gal about nine months ago. There is no appetite with most hard working folk for another 20 cents a gallon slapped on top of that. So that will be a non-starter in the budget talks. 

Plus - it seems this state is flush with money right now. Plenty of money to do most NORMAL things which need to be done. Just think - if we could control the fraud, waste and abuse, AND quit giving illegals so much of our money, we could really be on fat street. The focus of the Republicans in the Senate and House is to stop this constant leakage and mismanagement of our valuable tax dollars. The focus of the Governor and the Lefties in the House is to continue to spend like drunken sailors - and then some.

Some of the under informed folks in this state hate divided government. Nothing ever gets done. Of course, the definition of "nothing ever getting done" means we are not spending enough money on nonsense. However, the framers intentionally wanted things to be hard. Hard to grow government. Lots of checks and balances. So right now, it is our divided government which is saving us. We have plenty enough government right now, thank you.

The gun grabbers will feel "cheated" once again, as we probably will not have any more needless gun laws on the books. The chattering class will remind us of the recent school shooting in Colorado. Then we will remind the chattering class of how many gun laws these young people broke while doing that vile act. Laws are no good - no good what-so-ever, for people who live outside the law. Been that way forever. 

I will feel bad however, if we don't get some legislation on the books to protect the most innocent of us - the unborn. I love the idea of either "beating heart" legislation, or Senator Benson's ultrasound before abortion concept. I guess the genocide against the unborn in this state will continue until we get a Republican Governor, backed by a Republican House and Senate.

There it is folks. Close to the edge. Very, very close. By the way, the Dems are already plotting on how to take back the Senate in 2020. Should they do that, this reprieve will be very short lived. Then it will be Katy bar the door. How much so? Bigly so. 

Two bugaboos for our future

For any young folk out there, with a strong STEM background, get into batteries. Seriously. This will be the golden fleece. I have said before - robotics, nano, battery, or AI are just some of the very hot fields for the world of tomorrow.

I have addressed this many times in the past few years. It started out just appearing in some tech blogs. Now it is everywhere - especially the websites of the auto manufacturers. The future of transport is coming, and it is coming fast. How fast? Many car companies are already retooling. EV and Hybrid baby! All the way! The only problem is we many have been over driving our headlights. Seems a critical part of the new transports are not nearly ready for prime time (as yet).

Before I worked high tech programs at FMC in the early 1990's, I did not know spit about batteries or capacitors. Then I got assigned to a developing technology, called the 9 mega-joule electro-thermal gun. All I knew about batteries was how to put them in a flashlight. That changed quickly once I worked that program. In any event, I became very conversant in this new technology, and very quickly. Then years later, while working on the technology programs at Ecolab, batteries once again was the issue d'jour. As much as I thought I knew about batteries, Fujitsu (the tablet supplier to Ecolab), took me to a whole new level of understanding.

Flash forward to now. In the media today there was a "shocking" article about the failure of EV cars to handle the cold or the heat. Let me first say - the cold. This has been something I have wondered about for a few years now. How in the world will and EV handle a Minnesota winter? Seems not too well. Gasp! Yes, when the temp gets below 20 degrees Fahrenheit (common in a MN winter from November to April), the batteries lose up to 40% of their charge. And in hot climates (hello, Florida), they can lose over 20% just keeping the cab cool.

Okay Bird - no big surprise for us Minnesotans who have left batteries in the garage over winter. What is the other "bugaboo"? AI for the self drivers. There are a whole bunch of applications for autonomous vehicles getting ready to hit the market, and the AI is not quite ready to be fool proof. What does that mean? By 2025, when some planners want pods ready to pick you up at home, get on a smart road, and drive 80 mph at one pod distance from the pod in front, the users want it to be fail safe. Will it be? I think so. But again, we might be over driving our headlights.

For any young folk out there, with a strong STEM background, get into batteries. Seriously. This will be the golden fleece. I have said before - robotics, nano, battery, or AI are just some of the very hot fields for the world of tomorrow. Whatever company or country can crack the battery puzzle, the payoff will be in the high billions - maybe trillions. But the future is coming. We just need our technology to be ready for it.

When is the future coming? Now. Are we ready for it? We better be, or this house of cards will fall very quickly. 

Our last, best hope...

"Our country has been blessed to have the right man at the right time to do the right job. If Hillary had won, I shudder to think where we would be right now. She certainly would not be doing the heavy lifting that Donald Trump is doing."

Lots and lots of drama these days in Washington. And I am not even talking about the kabuki theater which is going on in Congress, You know, with "investigation mania". I am talking about who is doing the heavy lifting, which is very heavy now, as it should have been done years ago. But it was not. Like what heavy lifting? Let me start with our trade talks with China.

Donald Trump is our heavy lifter. He is really turning out to be our last, best hope in getting some really tough things done. I think of JFK in his speech when he challenged the nation to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. "We do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard". Everything Donald Trump is tackling right now is hard. Very, very hard.

This China thing is really hard. Why? I think the President put it well. For years, everyone, including China, has looked at the United States as being a patsy. "A piggy bank". As Trump has said many times, he does not blame countries who have been besting us on trade and tariffs. He blames the negotiators on our side, especially the President (at the time) who allowed this sloppy product to happen. That being said, it is not going to stop Donald Trump from fixing this huge trade imbalance with China. Not to mention China's theft of our IP.

Some are pointing fingers at Donald Trump right now, and blaming him for the "failure" of the North Korean fix. Well, excuse me! Donald Trump has taken the North Korea issue closer to resolution, than any other President in recent time. Trump is trying to rectify many years of neglect, by many Presidents in bringing North Korea into the 21st century. But decades of mistrust by three generations of North Korean leaders is not something which can be erased overnight. Is Trump going to quit and throw in the towel? Nope. He will keep working on it.

So meanwhile, while Trump has all these very, very hard and heavy balls in the air, not to mention the incredible job he has done with the economy, the sniping by the Democrats in Congress has never let up. If fact, it has become worse. The unholy triad of the Democrat Party, the Deep State, and the media has been relentlessness. I often wonder how much more successful our country would be right now if Congress acted like grownups, instead of spoiled brats. Yes, and I mean spoiled brats.

Our country has been blessed to have the right man at the right time to do the right job. If Hillary had won, I shudder to think where we would be right now. She certainly would not be doing the heavy lifting that Donald Trump is doing. If Donald Trump serves one term or two, he will not give up on North Korea or our trade imbalance with China. Why not? That is not the way he rolls.