Danger! Thin ice!

"Now get it right this next time. Remember - like any other job, you guys can all be replaced. In other words, you are on thin ice right now." 

Living in Minnesota for most all of my life, I, like many others, have become accustomed to seeing signs by lakes and ponds this time of year - "Danger! Thin ice!" Of course what that means is even though the ice might look safe, if often times is not. You could break through, go down into the icy water, and then you would have big problems.

Of course my article today has nothing to do with the ice conditions in Minnesota. It has everything to do with the upcoming vote on the Republican (House) tax bill. And then after the Thanksgiving break, the Republican (Senate) tax bill. Okay - I can't keep this in any longer. HOW IN THE WORLD COULD YOU GUYS HAVE MUCKED THIS UP SO BADLY?!?!?

Seriously, this was supposed to have been easy peasy. Falling of a log easy. Nope. Had to make it controversial and complicated. The only thing in either the House or Senate bill which made sense was the reduction in our corporate tax rate. After that, it was all downhill.

Ron Johnson (R-WI) is the first Senator to jump ship. His story is the same as many Republicans in the House who hate this bill. "I really would like to get to a yes. But this bill does not really cut taxes". Bingo. How to you go home and sell a lime when it is really a lemon. 

How could we have made this easy? By doing what was promised on the campaign trail. "There is no need for thousands of pages in a cumbersome IRS tax code. Taxes should be easy and fair. One page. Everyone would get some kind of tax cut." Wow! That sounded almost like Reaganomics! But no. Getting a tax cut which would entail paying in more taxes sounds more like, well, Obamaomics.

My advice? Since 2018 will be the first year affected by this plan, scrap what is now on the table. Go back to square one and start again. Have a plan ready for the President to sign by July 1st, and this time give it some teeth. EVERYONE (just like in the 1981 tax plan) gets some kind of tax cut. Shrink the size of government by putting this beast on a bit of a diet. Make this a truly historic bill.

In any event, that is my take. After mucking up the ObamaCare fix and now tax reform, this crowd in Washington really does look like the gang who can't shoot straight. BTW - not just my opinion on that matter. Now get it right this next time. Remember - like any other job, you guys can all be replaced. In other words, you are on thin ice right now. 

Dreaming of a "Red" Minnesota

"More on this in the months to come. I am tired of losing out to South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. If we have to move, we will. But first - let's turn this state "Red" once again. Then we will see where us seniors play out our end games."

In 1966, I was a junior at Robbinsdale High School. It was my best year at that fine institution. That was also the year the last Republican Attorney General was sworn into office. Let that sink in. I just had my 50 year reunion. The Attorney General's office has been in Democrat hands for over 45 years. With (get ready when I tell you this) 200 lawyers in that office, over the years the Attorney General's office has gone from doing the people's business to doing the party's business.

"Oh, come on Bird! It can't be that bad!" Yes, it really is. But here is the good news. The MN GOP has an excellent candidate for Attorney General this year who can be very Minnesota nice when he needs to be, and very Minnesota tough when he has to be. That man is Doug Wardlow, who has deep Minnesota roots, and a strong sense of justice. And Doug does not believe in putting his thumb on the scale of justice. He only believes in justice being blind to all prejudice and pre-conditions.

What would Minnesota be like with a real Attorney General? Well, for a change we would have a friend in St. Paul who would look after our legal and Constitutional rights. Whoops! Did I say Constitutional? Yes, Doug is a Constitutional type lawyer. Unlike some of the statists who dwell in the swamp of St. Paul, Doug does not believe our Constitution needs to be messed with. In fact, it needs to be guarded with an Aegis type shield.

I am going to let this out and I hope my friends on the Left will not have a fit. We need an Attorney General like Doug who will guard our rights. We need a strong state auditor who will (gasp!) really audit what is important for a change. Then we need a Secretary of State who is not part of the Soros "SOS" plan. Finally, we need a Republican leader (like Jeff Johnson), who will be able to work with these Constitutional officers to right many, many wrongs. 

For years, we have had a government who is "owned". A government who belongs to the DFL and not the people. In 2018, for the first time in a long, long time - how about a "Red" Governor working with "Red" Constitutional officers. Oh - one more thing. A "Red" House and Senate.

More on this in the months to come. I am tired of losing out to South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. If we have to move, we will. But first - let's turn this state "Red" once again. Then we will see where us seniors play out our end games.

Maybe the biggest frontier of them all...

"The revolution in cars will be tied closely to the revolution in battery technology. Changes will be coming, and coming fast. Exciting times are on the horizon. People with prepared minds as this change happens, will do very well."

Years ago, when I worked at Ecolab, I was responsible for the procurement of all electronic devices for the company. One of the biggest items I bought was the wireless tablets the service techs to use when out on calls. Fujitsu Corporation from Japan made the tablets. They needed robust batteries to last all day with numerous stops and changeable weather.

Ecolab had quarterly reviews with Fujitsu. At one of our reviews, I brought up the battery issue. Why Fujitsu could not make a battery which was better than the one they were selling Ecolab. We got into a very good exchange of information (I knew a bit about batteries and capacitors from my time at FMC), but more information was needed. They agreed to fly Fujitsu's battery expert out of Tokyo to attend out next quarterly meeting. We agreed to carve out one entire day just for battery discussions.

As much as I thought I knew about batteries and where the technology was at that time was dwarfed by this gentleman from Japan. He took myself and the rest of the team to school. Fujitsu, like many technology companies, knew there are huge rewards for companies who can make the next leap in battery technology. Fujitsu at that time, was looking to get order(s) of magnitude better with their battery technology. 

If you are looking for stocks to invest in, any company who makes batteries or capacitors might be the right place to park. The developing market for driver-less cars will take batteries - lots and lots of large and robust batteries. There will be a large market for batteries and capacitors to be used in houses which employ the new types of solar collectors. New batteries will be needed for cell phones, which can stay charged for a week or more, no matter how many apps are running at once. 

It is funny. In the paper this morning, the long awaited admission by our government concerning the incredible amount of shale oil we have in this country was revealed. I have known about this for years, thanks to my best man who is in the oil business. The good news - we have hundreds of years of supply of this stuff. The bad news - the market for petrol products will start to as with the new battery powered cars coming to market. 

Yesterday afternoon, I wrote about Bob Lutz. How he believes the next generation of cars (driver-less) is upon us, and the transition is already starting. There was no hesitation in his voice. No if, ands or buts. He was as sure of this new technology as the sun rising in the East tomorrow.

The revolution in cars will be tied closely to the revolution in battery technology. Changes will be coming, and coming fast. Exciting times are on the horizon. People with prepared minds as this change happens, will do very well.

The Lutz factor

"If we had a Metropolitan Council who was visionary instead of owned, they would also be able to see this change coming. They would scrap the entire LRT system and get ready for the next huge revolution. But they won't. Why? They are owned."



Bob Lutz, the former chairman of General Motors was on the radio today with some ominous predictions. Predictions about the future of automobile travel. One second please, before I continue - LISTEN UP YOU STATIST TRAIN LOVERS!!!THIS IS MOSTLY FOR YOU!! Anyhow, according to Mr. Lutz, who tends to know a thing or two about the automobile industry, our days of driving cars are coming to an end. For some, sooner rather than later.

The visionary companies are already all over this. When will the change happen? Now, in some parts of the country. Lutz thinks the change will be from now until 30 years from now. After that - all transportation will be driver-less. That would be both urban and rural. Traffic will move faster, and less time will be wasted in traffic. The new cars will be electric and most folks will not own one - only rent time in one.

I know. Someone is going to bring up the fact last week there was an accident with a diver-less bus and a truck. That is true. But the fault was determined to be with the human driver of the truck - not the driver-less vehicle.

By 2022, two things will be happening. First the long dreaded, expensive and very useless Southwest Rail will be online. Just heard some of the local statists talking about that on the news this morning. PLUS (and this is a big one), the shiny new toy in transportation will start to become more and more common in urban settings. Millennials and Gen-X'ers will be dropping train transportation faster than, well, a NASCAR (which will also be going away.

Bob Lutz said mapping is already going on - and going on like crazy. All streets, down to potholes, are being mapped. This change is like a juggernaut. Nobody can stand in its way. Cars which require a human driver will soon only be good for scrap metal. 

If we had a Metropolitan Council who was visionary instead of owned, they would also be able to see this change coming. And be excited about it. They would scrap the entire LRT system and get ready for the next huge revolution. But they won't. Why? They are owned.

The killing game

"We have a deficit of love and compassion, and a surplus of selfishness and sometimes just plain evil. Time to change back to the way we once were America. I don't think this is what our Founders had in mind for us." 

Somehow, somewhere in the past 50 years or so, the trolley has really gone off the tracks. What do I mean by that? When I was a teenager, should a dispute erupt between two young people, the worse case outcome would have been fists to cuffs. However to be truthful, the high school crowd which I ran with chose not to even have it go that far. Most disputes were just handled verbally.

Earlier this week, we had a homicide in the sleepy little town in which I live. Pretty rare to have a crime of that magnitude here. What made this crime particularly bothersome however, is the victim, the perp(s), and the motive. A young man, not even 20 yet, was intentionally run over by one very young adult and two juveniles. Why? They wanted to steal his bag of "weed". So they killed him. Just like that. 

Not thinking of course, that (at a minimum) three families would be ruined or severely damaged by this outcome. Not only do we have a young life snuffed out before it could really get going, we have three young people who are going to face some very serious charges. Life changing charges. Where was the thinking? Where was the moral compass? Is this what they learned at home? In school? In church?

It gets worse, much worse. Yes, I am going to talk about Chicago once again. As of today (thanks to one of the best, most informative sites on the internet - Hey Jackass!), the city of Chicago has had 604 homicides with 564 of them by shooting. And because Hey Jackass! goes into the details of each murder, we know this much - most were young, and most were black on black. And what are the two things that Mayor Rahm is most concerned with? Having his police force more restrained, and fighting Donald Trump on immigration. What does Rahm think about his city leading the nation in murders? Not much. Just stay out of that part of town, and you will be fine.

I don't care if it is one young person being killed in the town I live in, or over 600 killed in Chicago. We have become savages. And please - don't give me that whole gun control crap again. The statistics on members of the NRA who commit gun violence are so small, they look like fly poop in pepper. The gun violence in Chicago on the other hand (for the most part), comes from illegally obtained guns. Bottom line? If you are going to live outside the law, and become an outlaw, then laws will not matter to you. If you want to kill someone, you will use a knife, a baseball bat, a car or an illegally obtained gun.

One thing I have never heard explained is the following - why is it today that disputes can escalate faster than a Roman candle going off on the 4th of July? How we can go from dialogue to gun play in a matter of mere seconds? Have we collectively forgotten that killing is not only against our laws, but also against God's law? Is it the number of broken homes we have? Taking God out of the schools?  Violence on TV and in the movies? What?

All I know is this. I am sick and tired of losing our "seed corn" to both abortion and violent murder. What does that say about us as a society? Well it says this to me. We don't have a gun problem, we have a heart problem. We have a deficit of love and compassion, and a surplus of selfishness and sometimes just plain evil. It is time for us to change America back to the way it once was. I don't think this is what our Founders had in mind. 

Be the man your father wanted you to be

"Its funny. My dad has been gone now for thirteen years. Whatever I do, I still try to do it in a way which would make him proud. If I can be the man my dad wanted me to be, I am good with that. Then the rest just falls into place." 

Okay ladies, this one might be more for men, but I think it is an important message to share with everyone. Yes, the main idea is for boys to grow into men who would make their father's proud. Not only proud, but knowing when your father sees how you act, what you do, how you treat women, he will know the training he gave you as a boy has paid off. 

One of the most humbling things I have been told in my adult life was shortly after my dad had passed. My mother and I were chatting in the apartment we had just moved her into. Out of the blue she looked at me and said, "You know, your father was always proud of you. From the time you were in plays in high school and college, to your time in the Navy, your career, and your family." I was stunned. My dad and I always talked about stuff and chatted, but we never really "got deep". In other words, those were things he shared with his wife, but not with me. 

I know I have made some mistakes and some missteps in my life. My imperfections run deep and wide. But to know that I turned out to be the man my dad wanted me to be, has more value to me than gold. 

One of the things my dad would counsel me on starting when I was very young, was how to treat girls. And later on, how to treat women. My dad was noble, practiced chivalry, and was a gentleman. Not really uncommon in the "greatest generation". I watched my dad with amazement in how he dealt with people. A lover of people, he was always kind and had a very sharp sense of humor. Not a mean sense of humor, just a very funny one. It always put people at ease. 

Why do I think of this now, when I am in my late 60's? For this reason. With all we have been hearing about the tawdry ways some men have been treating women as of late, I think about that nagging question. Is this the way their father's wanted them to be? Would their fathers be proud of them? Are they speaking to other women with the same respect they give to their wives? How about their mothers?

Why is important to have both a mother and father in the home? They both teach us different yet equally important things. Each day as we grow, we model our behavior after something they do. For young boys, the modeling they get from dad is especially important. 

One more thing which is on the other side of the coin. I was blessed to have a great dad. Some are not. We can learn as much from bad behavior as we can from good. Many fine men I have known in my life who grew up in a troubled home told me they made a decision early in life they would not repeat their dad's mistakes. And they didn't.

Its funny. My dad has been gone now for thirteen years. Whatever I do, I still try to do it in a way which would make him proud. If I can be the man my dad wanted me to be, I am good with that. Then the rest just falls into place. 

Deep in the land of no grandparents...

"This time around, we need a bowl of hot porridge, not a cup of warm spit. If nothing else, we owe it to the grandparents, especially those stuck in states of blue."

Full time grandparents in the once great state of Minnesota are becoming a scarce commodity. Why? Don't they like their kids and grand kids? I would imagine the answer to that question would be they love them like crazy. But for some reason, the climate in Minnesota is turning very frosty towards the senior citizens who would like to spend their golden years with family and close to our forests and lakes.

Why is this so hard? What is wrong with our lawmakers who cannot see this trend developing? Good questions. I wish I had an answer. The funny thing is that Minnesota has often been referred to by some as the "land of 10,000 treatment centers." Well the biggest abusers in the state work in St. Paul. They are addicted to massive government spending. And who takes the brunt of it? Seniors. They are easy pickings, looked upon as low fruit on the tree.

If this sounds like I am going after Marx Dayton and the DFL, you win the prize - sort of. Many of our Republicans we send to St. Paul go through a metamorphosis from candidate to a spendy member of the legislature. They become "Democrat Light". How so? Take Social Security. The fact we STILL have seniors who will be impacted by paying tax on their Social Security earnings is almost immoral. This last session some seniors will get a break as the Social Security tax is means tested. However, many will not. Wisconsin could figure that out - Minnesota could not.

And now the authors in Washington of the new tax bill are going to take a shotgun approach to teach those heavily taxed states a lesson. The blue states, with their very high state and local taxes, are going to loss those deductions. And trust me, I know the arguments. I have heard them many times. "Why should the people in California pay less federal tax than then people in Texas just because Californians can deduct sky high taxes?" I get it. Trust me, I get it. The problem is, the true believer statists who work in St. Paul (or Sacramento and points beyond), will not change. Their taxes will stay high, and innocent people will get hurt. 

Today in the paper the issue of cabin owners was addressed. How with the new tax bills, any mortgage interest on those cabins will no longer be deductible. However, for those who own cabins in Minnesota, there is another issue also. Many out state counties really soak cabin owners on property tax. Why? They need the revenue. Many counties have very little industry, so they need the revenue coming in from the cabin owners. If that deduction goes out the window, look for the cabin market in Minnesota to turn south faster than snow birds in November.

A good friend of mine called me yesterday and chided me a bit for throwing in with the Democrats. On what? On my criticism of losing the the SALT deduction. Sorry - did not mean to. What I did tell my good friend is simply this - if this tax bill is going to be "historic" like the 1981 Reagan tax bill, then EVERYONE needs to get tax relieve. With this tax bill as it stands right now? I am not feeling it. 

This tax bill is starting to look like the fix for ObamaCare. Slam, bam, thank you (whomever), and here it is. The op/ed in the paper today cautioned the lawmakers to slow down, and get this one right. I could not agree more. This time around, the citizens need a bowl of hot porridge, not a cup of warm spit. If nothing else, we owe it to the grandparents, especially those stuck in states of blue.