The Untied States of America

"Me? I am looking for a state to move to which would allow sanctuary from paying taxes. I mean, what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. Right?" 

There was a time in this country, not too very long ago, that traveling from state to state was kind of fun. To see different sights, to taste different foods, to listen to different variations of the English language. We still have that, but we also have something else. What color the state is. In other words, is it a red state like Florida or Texas? Or is it bright blue like California or New York? Today, the color of the state drives so much of the culture of that state.

Let's look at two states who are polar opposites of each other, and continue to be so. This month, California passed a law (with budget muscle behind it), that all illegal immigrants will be supplied with free healthcare. Huh? California, who carries the largest state debt in the nation (just north of $150B), is now going to spend billions more on people who should not even be here. Why? Because Gavin Newsom is an idiot. He has made the entire state a sanctuary for law breakers.

Florida on the other hand, under their new Governor (Ron DeSantis), just signed a bill making it illegal for any city in Florida to be sanctuary. Gasp! This might be right up there with Georgia outlawing abortions! Get ready Florida - you might have just landed in Hollywood's sights. Shame, shame, shame!

The illegal alien question is just one way our great republic is becoming untied. No, that is not a typo. Untied, not united. The anti-sanctuary states we have right now are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Mostly bible belt states in the deep south.

One the other side of the equation, are the states which are pro-sanctuary. They are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Get the picture? Mostly coastal elites. 

The polarization of our country over these two issues, sanctuary and abortion, have become the great divide. There is no common ground, nor middle ground. They are black and white, binary issues. The question then becomes, how do you govern a nation this divided? This untied? Simple answer: after watching Washington, DC dissolve over the past ten to fifteen years - you don't. We have become ungovernable. 

The good news for the commies, socialists and statists, who live in the once great state of Minnesota - Taxing Timmy said on the campaign trail, he too, would like our state to also be sanctuary. That is, only for certain law breakers.

Me? I am looking for a state to move to which would allow sanctuary from paying taxes. Breaking the law is breaking the law. I mean, what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. Right?

  

Debt? What debt?

"Hey Baby Boomers! This one is on us. This is our legacy, which we are leaving our kids and grandies. We can bitch and moan about the shortcomings of Gen X and the Millenniums, but the debt is all us. Great examples, we are."   

First the Dodo Bird became extinct. Now it also appears the once treasured Budget Hawk is going the way of the Dodo. Am I wrong on this? Has anyone heard "boo" about our beloved national debt as late? In fact, if just about anyone of the socialists who is running for President gets sworn in, and has a Democrat House and Senate, it will be Katy bar the door. The plans they have to spend money we don't have, will take our national debt from the trillions to the zillions. 

We are spending like drunken sailors right now. Of course, some of what we are spending is going to the military. Equipment and salaries. Things which were somewhat neglected during the last Administration. The 600 pound beast in the corner however, is not being talked about. The main driver(s) to our debt. Medicare and Social Security. Both of these programs are destined for failure unless reformed. And there is not one beating heart on Capitol Hill that has the guts to bring that subject up.

Well - that is not exactly true. Many of the socialists who at one time were Democrats, are bringing it up. Like, we need to open up Medicare for all. After all, in the Constitution they envision, health care is a "right". How much will that cost? Trillions. Who pays for that? Nobody - yet. We will just put it on the tab. Let future generations worry about it. Party like it is 1999, or something like that.

And our favorite 1/1024th Native American, Elizabeth Warren just came out and said if SHE is President, the first thing she will do is absolve folks of all student loans. And why not? It is only $1.5T. Who will pay for it? Again - not us. We will just put it on the tab and wait for the big crash to come. Until then, we will just eat, drink and be merry. 

Here are the numbers for GFY 2019, and they are a bit sobering. According to the Concord Coalition, government spending is projected to be $4.41T this year. Revenues, even though very high, are only going to be $3.52T. So if A - B + C, that must mean our projected deficit this year will be a shade under $900B. And - our National Debt will eclipse $22T. 

Our country is like the 300 pound man who is going on a crash diet consisting of four cheeseburgers for lunch, and an entire pizza for dinner. For some reason as of late, the word "debt" has become a vile four letter word, which is mentioned in Washington as many times as Voldemort is mentioned in Harry Potter books.

Hey Baby Boomers! This one is on us. This is our legacy, which we are leaving our kids and grandies. We can bitch and moan about the shortcomings of Gen X and the Millenniums, but the debt is all us. Great examples, we are.   

Not tough enough

"Someday, everyone, including Taxing Timmy, will come to realize our education system sucks. Big time. We could do SO MUCH better, just by expecting more and accepting nothing but the best."

Did you know there are some teachers in Minnesota who have not consumed gallons of Education Minnesota kool aide? I am married to a retired teacher who meets that criteria. Did you know what some of the enlightened teachers refer to summer vacations as? The "season of forgetting". Not an opinion - cold hard fact. Studies have proven it. Kids forget quite a bit over the summer, so much so, that the first part of September is booting them up to speed.

Problem number two. Years ago while serving in the Naval Reserve, one of my shipmates was a middle school science teacher in the heart of Minneapolis for his day job. He hated it, and could not wait until he had his "Rule of 90" under his belt, so he could "pull the plug". Why? The district was corrupt. Many of the kids were "throw away" kids, they knew all they had waiting for them was a life of poverty. Why is that? Because that is the way Mom had it - and Grandma had it - and so forth. Generational poverty as the Sociologists call it. School was a waste of time, and many could not wait until they were 16, so they could drop out.

My Navy friend told me after a while, he became so apathetic, at the beginning of each school year, he asked the class one simple question - "Who wants to learn?" Those who raised their hands were put in the front rows. Those who did not, were put in the back, so they could talk and joke or whatever. Just keep it quiet enough as not to disrupt the class. Once they got their "F" for the year, they just took something else the following year until they got to be 16. Then they were gone. Taxpayers - this is part of your ROI.

Flash forward to the school year of 2019-2020, which starts after Labor Day. I know, I know - why rush our summer away? School just got over for the year. It did - and we are now in the "season of forgetting". That has not changed. How about our failure factories in the heart of the city? Still up and failing, thank you. And the achievement gap remains unchanged. 

Actually, even though we have a former educator like Taxing Timmy as our Governor, nothing is going to change. The white kids, who live in the better suburbs, will continue to do well. The ones in the city? Well, you know the answer to that one. 

Here comes my Harvey Hard Ass part. Schools, be they in Wayzata or downtown Minneapolis - are not long enough, and not tough enough. Long enough? How about a school year of 220 days with no summer vacation? One extended time off from Thanksgiving to New Year, and another extended time off from Memorial Day to Independence Day. That is it - the rest of the days are school days.

No more snow days or "cold days". If school is called off, there will be mandatory "webinars" for all students. Learning will continue, be it in school, or at home. Sports will only be made available to "student athletes. In other words, if you are not a student first, you can forget about sports. We are in school primarily to learn, not to play.

There is much more, but I will leave it here. Someday, everyone, including Taxing Timmy, will come to realize our education system sucks. Big time. We could do SO MUCH better, just by expecting more and accepting nothing but the best. And going into the period of 2020 to 2025, we need to looking forward, now backward.

Our kids are tough - they can do it. But the gauntlet needs to be out there. No more short cuts. No more quitting. Only success. Why? Success begets success, and failure breeds failure. 

Dire Straight...

"The might be just a 'one off' incident, or this might get very interesting, very fast. Stay tuned on this one. Another Mid-East flare up might be in the offing." 

If you could draw a map of the world, and try to invent a very dire route for many of the world's oil tankers to traverse. it would probably look just like the Straight of Hormuz. Then, just for kicks and giggles, have one of the neighboring countries on the Straight be the number on terror exporter in the world. Yes, that be Iran. Add in some Middle East conflict, and you have one messy route for oil tankers to go through. But what could possibly go wrong?

Maybe a torpedo or two? Hitting a couple of oil tankers? Maybe this could be the start of something very ugly. After all, the Straight is so narrow at it's narrowest point (about 35 miles), launching a torpedo from the safety of your own shore would be no big deal. And if this becomes a practice, where ships are sitting ducks in the Straight, this could really put a hiccup in world oil prices.

How so? According to Google, in 2011 fourteen massive oil tankers would go through the Straight each and every day, heavily laden with Mid-East oil. They would be carrying about 17 million barrels of oil, which is about 35% of all oil shipped by sea. Or putting it another way, about 20% of all oil traded worldwide. 

Why would Iran want to sabotage the Straight? Why not? We are sanctioning the heck out of Iran's oil delivery. Outside of war, or an all out embargo, sanctioning is the only arrow in our quiver we can use to punish this rogue regime. So they might be playing a little tit for tat. Especially if they could hit a tanker carrying oil from the hated Saudi Arabia.

The United States Navy is close by. They are assisting the two stricken ships, since the crews abandoned them. What is next? Maybe our Navy will be escorting tankers through the Straight. Then what would our response be if another torpedo was launched from shore? Act of war? The match which would light the fire? 

The Straight of Hormuz has been a problem since the oil embargo of 1973. I am sure our Navy has "war gamed" just about every scenario possible in case trouble ever broke out in the Straight. The problem as I see it is this - if a torpedo is launched, and the Navy decides to take out the launcher, it might involve attacking Iran itself. 

One more thing. Should the flow of oil become crippled due to strife in the Straight, get ready for a huge hit in gasoline prices this summer. Even though our country is awash in our own supply of oil, the way the world markets work, we would still be affected by the increase in prices of Mid-Eastern oil. It would be a mess, hitting our country at the absolute worse time. 

Some ask, why not just get it over with? Iran has been itching for war with us since 1973, and I am sure many in this country feel the same about them. Israel would love it if we could take Iran down a peg or two. Plus, EVERYBODY knows they are still working on a deliverable bomb. Why not get this fight over with now, before they have the bomb? I am sure Saudi Arabia would love to offer us logistic support should we go to war with Iran. 

The might be just a "one off" incident this week, or this might get very interesting, very fast. Stay tuned on this one. Another Mid-East flare up might be in the offing. 

A bionic bird

"A hundred years ago, it was not just that the life expectancy was so much less than today, it was also the quality of life as one aged.We are blessed, very blessed, to have the medical technology we have today." 

"We can rebuild him. We can make him better!" Who my age, could ever forget those famous lines from Lee Majors in "The Six Million Dollar Man". For those who not remember, it is the story of a man who was almost fatally injured in a crash, and then rebuilt using many artificial parts. It all made for good TV at the time. Little did we know that the science fiction in that show would start becoming science reality sooner than we thought. 

Many of us either know of people, or might have had this experience themselves. A knee or a hip gives out, and surgery is required. An artificial part is then inserted, usually made out of titanium. It is better than the original bone which nature supplied us with. Or a pacemaker, to help one's heart. The list could go on and on.

Like many, many my age, I had my first articular implant yesterday. A new cataract. The way the doctor explained it to me before the surgery, the one that I was born with, was not very efficient. And over time, it picked up some "rust on the fenders". Pretty soon, I started losing some of my eyesight. During my surgery yesterday, the old inefficient cataract was removed, and replaced with a newer and better, model. Different shape, different material, different outcome. 

Before my surgery, I started thinking about what people a hundred years ago did when stuff wore out. Before cataract surgery, you just eventually went blind. Before pacemakers and artificial heart valves, you just died of heart failure. Without artificial joints, you just became crippled up for the rest of your life. A hundred years ago, it was not just that the life expectancy was so much less than today, it was also the diminished quality of life as one aged. We are blessed, very blessed, to have the medical technology we have today. 

Today, it is back to the doc for a post op visit. Then home for more recuperation time and drops, drops and more drops. But it is all good. Already I am noticing a big difference in the vision in my "bionic" eye.

It is all good. Why is that? I need to keep a "bird's eye" view on what is going on so I can keep this blog somewhat up to date - especially in St. Paul and Washington!

Incognito, no longer...

"Still looking to hide in plain sight? Good luck. It is about to go from hard to impossible." 

Reading some of the tech blogs, one of the next big battlegrounds will be facial recognition (known as "facial rec"). This rapidly evolving science, along with more refined voice recognition, is quickly doing away with our ability to "hide in main sight". Want to be incognito? Good luck with that one! Right now, even smart phones are getting ready to have facial rec on them. It is becoming almost a fool proof way to ID someone instantly, anywhere. 

This is just a small sample on how we are tripping into this brave new world which is evolving beneath our feet. What is driving it? It starts out with our good friend, Artificial Intelligence (AI). But there is much more to that story.

Do you know that AI, although it is a term used frequently these days, is somewhat of an antiquated term? AI, has been around for a few decades now, and is still being used. But AI needs help from human interfacing to perform. So, we move on to the next platform (so to speak). That would be Machine Learning. Machine Learning is similar to AI, except the human interface is no longer needed. Given a finite set of parameters, a machine can "learn" on its own. 

But the next platform, which we will be hearing about more and more in the near future, is Deep Learning. Deep Learning is like Machine Learning, only the parameters it can learn from are no longer infinite. Any data base can be accessed for the machine to learn from. Now we are talking "1984" on steroids.

Back to facial rec. Using Deep Learning, finding someone's true identity will be easy peasy. When my wife and I go on a cruise, the cruise line uses facial rec when we first check in. That way, every time we debark or embark, we are instantly ID'd by our facial rec. Soon, it will be in the airports, in schools, at places of employment - everywhere. If you are a bad actor, trying to hide from the law, good luck on that one!

Wait a minute! That is what a Constitutional scholar might say. Is this not a violation of our Fourth Amendment? Having your face scanned without your permission might be classified as an "unreasonable search" of you identity. Good question! But here we are again, on that familiar battlefield. Technology vs. rights. Get ready to lawyer up!

Facial rec is not 100% accurate yet, but it is getting close. For example, every time I post a pic of the President on social media, it tags a FB friend of mine who is not the President. But Deep Learning will soon fix glitches such as that.

Still looking to hide in plain sight? Good luck. It is about to go from hard to impossible. 

Played for fools...

"How is the President holding up? Just fine, thank you. Stuff is getting done, and he is gearing up for his re-election bid. Meanwhile, the Democrats are melting faster than the Wicked Witch of the West, while taking a cold shower."      

Sometimes you can be so close to the hardwoods, you literally cannot see the forest through the trees. That is what is happening right now in Washington. With the House Democrats. They are being played for fools, and most have no clue what is going on. Ms. Nancy does, but her caucus is way, way out of control. With the number of her members demanding impeachment growing by the week, it is a question for how long she can hold the lid on.

This week, the little chubby guy from NYC, who wears his pants higher than Urkel did, is going to waste more time having "hearings" on this collusion and obstruction nonsense. Why? In Nadler's words, "The American people are demanding to know the truth!" In reality, the American people are either saying, (yawn), or "Who gives a rip - get your butts back to work! Infrastructure, healthcare, border security, trade and so forth need to get done!" And so far, this Congress has only done spit.

Meanwhile, as the Democrats are all tied up in knots, the President had probably his best week last week. He looked and acted Presidential, and a ton of things got done. Plus, he came up with what might be the line of the year. "It is sad when the Mexican government is doing more to help with our immigration problem than the Democrats in Congress are." BINGO! That focuses the problem very well, thank you. Rather than legislate, all this clown car wants to do is investigate.

But first, let's review the bidding. Did the Russians interfere with the 2016 election. Probably. Was Trump involved? No. Did Putin have it out for Hillary? Oh, yes. Why? It all goes back to Russia's 2011 election. It is no secret that Putin had no time for President Obama. Putin believed the cabal of Obama using Hillary as his SOS, was behind the social unrest after the Russian elections. Spreading the story that Putin rigged the election. What? Like we would interfere in a Russian election? Wake up and smell the coffee, bucko! Of course we did - just like we did in Israel, when Obama tried to get Bebe dumped. In any event, Putin has had it out for Hillary ever since. And he got her (even though Trump would have won anyhow).

So there really is no "there, there". There was no collusion, There was no obstruction of justice, as there was no crime committed. This entire 2+ years has been NOTHING but Kabuki Theater, compliments of the DNC and House Democrats. Is it going to end soon? Nope. They will keep playing this tune until the 2020 elections. Then after Trump's landslide victory, they will try and dig this corpse up again and reanimate it until the 2022 elections. Meanwhile, the socialists who now call themselves Democrats, will have exposed themselves for who and what they really are - boobs.

A relative of mine who is a neutral third party, recently said to me he can't stand to watch the news anymore. I agreed with him. I became weary of this issue over a year ago. There is nothing new under the sun - it is just the same old, same old, day after day. Blah, blah, blah.

How is the President holding up? Just fine, thank you. Stuff is getting done, and he is gearing up for his re-election bid. Meanwhile, the Democrats are melting faster than the Wicked Witch of the West, while taking a cold shower.