Things we should be thanking Donald Trump for....

....besides some of the best Saturday Night Live skits ever!

Yes, The Donald has had much ridicule heaped on him this election season for his....umm....unusual ideas.  But he has also brought into the light some issues that had been largely underground for years.  You might have to look deep, but he's done us all a service and maybe secured for himself a worthwhile legacy in the process.  To wit:

TRADE AGREEMENTS  Most Americans don't understand trade deals.  We give a little, they give a little, we both get what we want....win/win, right?  Hardly!

Trade deals are driven by what's in the best interest of business, and not necessarily (rarely, actually) in the best interest of the American workers.  Why do you think millions of well-paying American jobs have have moved beyond our borders, and too much of what we've gotten in return are much-lower-paying warehousing and delivery jobs?  Because businesses can make more $$$$ doing business that way.  Screw US!

American businesses used to have America's interests at heart, but for decades now all they've cared about is making money for themselves, however/wherever they can.  If Carrier Corp hands out 1,000 pink slips in Indiana and hires a like number in Mexico, or Indonesia, etc, they don't care!  There's rarely even a passing thought of good 'ol America's best interest.  Their quarterly profits are up, their executive bonuses are up, their shareholders (many of them foreign investors) are happy, the job-gaining country is happy....the big losers are the 1,000 laid-off American workers.  

We need trade.  We can produce much more than we can consume ourselves.  I'm all for trade, if done fairly, but what we've negotiated recently are simply BAD DEALS!

OUR F___KED UP TAX CODE  Most of us only know "we" pay too much, and "the rich" pay too little.  That's all we ever hear.  It's hard to wrap our arms around that opaque concept.  Donald Trump put a real-world number on it.  How many of us had ever heard of a "loss carry forward" before Donald Trump's $936,000,000 business boo-boo?  That sweetheart tax deal has helped him (and many other of his uber-rich buddies) to avoid paying hundreds of millions (billions?) of dollars in taxes.  

That has led us to take a deeper look at our ridiculously complex 75,000 page +/- tax code, a code that got that way due to special favors granted by lawmakers to wealthy special interests in exchange for.....?
  

The rich usually deserve to be rich....they work hard, they work smart, they take risks....more power to them.  But when they can take their hard-earned gains and, with the signing of a piece of tax legislation, see their wealth explode with little additional effort on their part, that's just WRONG!  That's what "income inequality" is all about.  That, more than anything else, is what is killing our middle class! 

You're likely to ride off into the sunset next month, Donald, to take up company with Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, John Kerry, and all those other historical footnotes, but if your spotlight can somehow enable us to fix our tax code and trade policies, you'll at least have that as a legacy you can be proud of.

S

More emergency preparation stuff....second try

I tried posting this a couple of days ago, but for some reason Blogger reduced the print size to "microscopic" and wouldn't let me change it, so here's my second try:

My Aussie friend Maggie Justasiam posted on her blog recently that a huge storm knocked out electric power to an entire state in Australia for an extended period of time.  She wondered how she would cope if it happened to her where she lives?  No electric cooking or lights or refrigerator, no heating or air conditioning, no building elevators....nothing.  And now we're having hurricane Matthew pounding Florida as I write this and they're saying some there might be without power for several weeks.  Are YOU prepared for something like this?

To follow on my previous preparation posts of September 11, 12, and 13 (you can still read them by clicking on "blog archive" at the bottom of the column on the right), here are some more things I've gleaned on the subject: 

First, even if you have a supply of emergency food, how do you cook it?  If you have a portable generator you can fire up a hotplate, but most of us don't have a generator, and generators require gasoline that can be tricky and even dangerous to store.  You could cook over an open firepit or over your home's fireplace, but again, that requires special tools, too.

For me a simple solution is the propane version of the tried-and-true camping stove.  You can buy either the small 14 oz propane bottles or the larger 15 lb ones at the large box hardware stores.  (Just don't use propane in an un-ventilated area.)  And if you have a barbecue grill, you can cook with pots and pans on top of that, too.

An emergency radio is a must.  There are many different brands/models available for under $50.  Even if the power is out, civil authorities will still be able to broadcast thanks to their generators, but it is up to you to be able to receive it.  From them you will be able to know what is going on in your area, when power might be restored, where/when emergency supplies might be available, etc.  These small radios are usually powered by AA batteries, but also have a small built-in solar panel to recharge the radio and any other devices that might meed charging, too.  A hand crank for recharging is good to have, too, for those cloudy days.

You should also have a good first aid kit available.  And by "good" I don't mean a box of band aids or one of those little pouches that you keep in you car's glove compartment. You'll need blood clotting pads, a tourniquet, antibiotics, allergy meds, etc, AND ANY MAINTENANCE MEDICATIONS YOU TAKE ON A DAILY BASIS.  And don't forget a medical kit for your pets, too.

Assuming you still have shelter, you can still get life-threateningly cold in the winter.  You should have a good quality (NOT one with Hello Kitty on the cover!) down or synthetic sleeping bag per person.  

In addition I suggest you have some "space blankets" on hand, too.  These are thin, light, and inexpensive aluminum foil-like sheets that reflect your body heat back towards you.  I've used them while backpacking and they really do work.  And just a tip, invite your dogs to lie next to you whenever possible.  Their normal body temperature is between 101 and 102.5 degrees, considerably warmer than yours.

You'll need some cash and some barter materials to replenish any things you are out of or simply forgot.  Having $100 on hand they say isn't nearly enough for a prolonged  period without power.  If you can afford it, have $1000-$2000 safely put away.  Barter materials might include alcohol, cigarettes, toilet paper, soap, batteries....anything you need, your neighbors will need, too.  Stock up with extras.

Batteries....try to buy devices (flashlights, radios, etc) that use the same size batteries.  AA and AAA seem the most common.  By standardizing you can buy giant sleeves of batteries (36 or more) from the box hardware stores MUCH cheaper than at the grocery store.  Regardless of the size, just make sure you have plenty.  Fortunately today batteries have very good long-term shelf lives.

And of course there are all those necessary-but-mundane things that you need and probably already have:  candles, matches, toilet paper, soap, laundry detergent for hand washing, paracord (durable all-purpose rope-like material), some reading/writing materials (so you don't go nuts), some 5-gallon buckets and very heavy plastic bags for sanitary needs, feminine supplies (guys, you DON'T want your family to run short of Midol, trust me!)....really the list of things that will be useful is just too numerous to mention.  Fortunately the topic is all over the internet, so you can do your own research.

And finally, on to a touchy subject for many:  weapons.  You know the old saying, "desperate people do desperate things".  You might need to defend yourself if someone tries to harm you or your family out of their desperation.  You won't need a whole arsenal....you won't be fighting WWIII....but a good handgun, perhaps a rifle/shotgun, and a supply of ammunition would be wise to have on hand.  It is IMPERATIVE that if you have a gun, you know how to safely store and use it.  If you're not willing to do that, then do everyone a favor and just take your chances unarmed.  As an alternative to violence, why not just stock some extra supplies and share with those less fortunate / unprepared.

My point is, this prepping thing is no longer just discussed among the tin-foil-hat crowd.  This is likely going to become more and more necessary considering the world we live in these days.  Don't be scared, but do be prepared.

Hope this helps.

S

OK, I've got nuthin'

Watching the Vice-Presidential debate last night I had an epiphany:  the Democrats and Republicans have both made jobs and the economy the number one issue this election year.  The Democrats want to do this by raising taxes on the wealthy, then using that additional revenue to hire new workers to build/repair new roads and bridges, subsidize a solar power initiative, etc, making our economy more competitive and efficient.

The Republicans want to cut taxes, mostly to the wealthy (who I'll call the "investor class") so they can then start new businesses and fund the expansion of existing ones.  They say these tax cuts would create millions of new workers who would then pay taxes themselves, more than making up for the tax cut that "primed the pump" to begin the process.  This is what is commonly known as "trickle down" economics.

Here's the problem:  Trump's running mate Mike Pence pointed out this tax cut theme worked well for JFK back in the 1960's, and for Ronald Reagan in the 1980's, and it will work for us now in 2016, too.  Call me a skeptic....

First of all, for this to work today you would have to assume there was a shortage of capital available to start/expand new businesses.  All of the worthy, cash-starved entrepreneurs desperate for funding would benefit from this "investor class" infusion of new capital due to a tax cut.

But that simply isn't the reality of today.  There is no shortage of investment capital.  With just a little research you can see for yourself there is approximately $1.7 TRILLION (one source: WSJ) of wealth in the hands of individuals and corporations available for investment....if they could find a safe, lucrative place to invest it.  A lack of money to invest is NOT our problem today!

Think about it....interest rates are still at/near record lows.  If there was ample loan demand, and a shortage of money to loan, interest rates would be HIGH.  It's the classic supply/demand conundrum:  too much supply, not enough (worthy) demand.  A tax cut won't change that at all.

The housing bubble that burst catastrophically back in '08 was the result of the investor class trying to create demand where there wasn't any.  They were desperately looking for a safe place to invest their wealth and they thought housing would be it.  They guessed wrong.

Wealthy individuals and companies today are actually flush with cash.  In fact they're using their excess $$$ to buy/merge with competitors, or just buy back their own stock.   Look at Delta/Northwest Airlines, United/Continental Airlines, the pharmaceutical giants buying up each other, the health insurance giants merging, and all the buying up of new innovative technology by Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, etc.  We're swimming in liquidity!

And it's likely to get worse, too.  For several decades the investor class was enamored with the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as places to put their money.  Get in on the ground floor as these countries began to rapidly develop, the theory went, and then ride the wave to HUGE profits.  Never mind they were helping to create new jobs there, not here.

Now the BRICS are stalled or at least slowing considerably, so the investor class is once again looking for a safe, lucrative place to invest their cash.  Giving them a tax cut today would just give them a larger pile of cash to park somewhere, and that might turn out to be somewhere outside the US.  And now those from many other parts of the world are depositing their money here, too, because we're seen as a safe, if not terribly lucrative, haven.  It seems we have an embarrassment of riches. 

In Ronald Reagan's time we were on the cusp of an incredible new (internet based) technological revolution, and a tax cut then probably helped to fund it.  We'll have another radical technology revolution some day, too, but it's not here now.  A tax cut to the well-to-do now will likely just exacerbate the current "income inequality", possibly leading to the wrong kind of "revolution".  *yikes*

So then the Democrats are right, right?  The government should raise taxes, and then wisely spend that money on new projects that will create jobs, and we'll all live happily ever after.  WRONG!  Modern history has shown us that you can't use "government" and "spend money wisely" in the same sentence.  It's the ultimate oxymoron.

Just something for you to think about.  Rebuttals welcome.

S

Making Mr. Magoo proud!

The notoriously nearsighted Mr. Magoo.

As usual this morning I watched the talking head shows to learn how much mud had been slung by our illustrious presidential candidates overnight.  Turns out the Democrats are still fuming over the fact that Donald Trump likely pays no taxes at all....nada....zip!  *gasp*

And the Republicans are still strutting their stuff, pointing out how brilliant The Donald is at slinking his way through the 75,000 page (and growing) IRS tax regulations.  *par-tay!*

And we, the voters, still can't see 2 feet past this "made-for-TV" charade.  

Is it scandalous that Trump pays no taxes?  YES, of course it is.  Does it make Trump a despicable person for not paying any taxes?  NO, of course not.  He's paying what the IRS says he must, and no more.  Both arguments are missing the REAL scandal:  HOW IN THE HELL have we allowed so many loopholes, deductions, exemptions, subsidies, etc to be included in our tax code in the first place?

How?  We've been outsmarted, and grossly out spent, by the rich and powerful and their hired lobbyists.   They knock on the door of an influential Congressman or Senator and say "We'd like a special tax exemption that allows us to blah blah blah.  Oh, and here's a $25,000 campaign contribution because you're such a great guy."  And down the hall another lobbyist is asking another "civil rapist servant" for their special consideration, and greasing more than a few palms, too.  Over and over it happens, both parties, all over Capital Hill.

Then they all get together and say, "I'll vote for yours if you'll vote for mine."  And they agree, and the tax code grows by a few more pages, and we get screwed. 

Hillary Clinton isn't about to change this practice if elected.  She IS the establishment in this election.  Nor will Donald Trump....he and his $$$$buddies have been the ones greasing the aforementioned palms for decades.  They have everything to lose and nothing to gain if the system is shaken up.

It's all a big joke.  They will win, we will lose.  Game, set, match.

 Thank you Congressman.  May I please have another.

S 

Hit 'em where it hurts

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf testifying before Congress
  *interesting sympathy ploy*

So Wells Fargo Bank, considered to be the most trustworthy of the mega-banks (a rather low bar), was caught opening millions of extra-services customer accounts that had not been requested, for which the bank received fees.  The Federales fined WF $185M for investor fraud as the upshot of their sleaze was to drive the stock price up, benefiting the bank management team.

But thanks to public pressure, 'da bank will not allow CEO Stumpf to keep his stock bonus for those years, nor any bonus he would otherwise be due this year.  They will be "clawing back" from him  $41,000,000.  THAT'S how you hurt a crooked banker!  A $185M hickey to a bank netting $5.7 BILLION a year (a 25.08% profit margin) is chump change.  $41M to a banker personally is an attention grabber.

Also, retiring WF executive Carrie Tolstedt, the banker who oversaw the community banking division where the fraud took place, is having $53M of her "happy retirement" money clawed back, too.  (Don't feel too sorry for her, though.  She'll still walk away with $77M for her previous 27 years of "servicing" *snicker*  WF customers.)

And now for the piece de resistance, several terminated former managers have filed a class-action lawsuit in the amount of $2.6 BILLION on behalf of themselves and roughly 5,000 other line workers who couldn't meet their quota of pushing customers into opening new extra-service accounts and were shown the door.

We're half way there.  Personally hitting their pocket books is a pleasant start.  Seeing a few of them behind bars would be Karma done right!  :)

S  

She played him like a three-dollar fiddle....

Did you watch the Presidential Debate last night?  What did you think?  I'm in a unique position to comment as I don't plan to vote for either of them.  As if you care, here are my thoughts:

Overall, Donald Trump had a few good ideas, but he failed to articulate them in terms voters could understand.  He often didn't connect the dots.  For example, he claimed that our trade deals to date, particularly NAFTA, were bad for working Americans.  Hillary said NAFTA was a net jobs creator for the USA.  But Trump didn't follow up with, "yes, but we lost millions of good paying manufacturing jobs and gained lots of lower paying transportation and distribution jobs.  That's a major reason our middle class is in decline."  I think he'll see that as a lost opportunity.

He said he didn't think many NATO members were paying their fair share of the organization's costs.  I tend to agree.  But he could have followed up with "those Europeans who enjoy that comfortable social safety net you're so envious of can only afford to do that because they scrimp on their own defense....they know we'll cover their a$$ if they're ever seriously threatened.  We can't afford those things for our people because we're paying to protect their people."*

But he didn't.

*Not all 28 NATO countries are stingy funding their military.  Notable exceptions include The UK and France.

Trump pointed out that there were TRILLIONS of dollars of earnings kept by American companies overseas because our high corporate tax rate prohibited them from bringing it back here.  Why didn't he expound on that by asking "why would they want to bring it back here and pay 35% when they can leave it in Ireland or the Cayman Islands and pay a single-digit tax rate?"  That might make a believable case for a corporate tax cut.

But he didn't.

When he said that he would stop American companies from moving overseas, and Hillary asked "how", he said he would put a big tax on their (now cheap) products being brought back here for sale. In other words he would start a trade war....a big no-no.  

He could have pointed out that as our tax laws are now written, companies that make a move overseas can take a one-time tax write-off for the expenses involved, often up into the $BILLIONS for large companies.  In other words, the American taxpayers are subsidizing their move....the very taxpaying workers being laid off are paying their former employers for laying them off!  

But he didn't.

Hillary let more than a few opportunities slip by, too.  When Trump said his massive tax cut (to the wealthy) would enable them to create new and expand existing businesses and jobs, all Hillary said was "Trumped-up trickle-down economics doesn't work".  Why didn't she quote some of the authoritative research (such as by the Wall Street Journal) that says there is at least $1.7Trillion in wealth sitting idle on the sidelines right now because wealthy individuals and companies can't find enough good places to invest it, and when they do, it's often overseas?  A tax cut to the wealthy will likely create relatively few new American jobs.  

A lost opportunity, Hillary.

When she pointed out that years ago Trump was sued for racial discrimination regarding the leasing practices of his properties, his comeback was, "and I settled that without admitting any guilt."   She could have said that was like a mobster saying sarcastically "I didn't do it, nobody saw me, you can't prove a thing."  It isn't that he didn't discriminate, it's just that he got away with it.  Bye-bye black vote.

But she didn't.

I could go on and on, but you saw the same thing I did.  Basically I thought Hillary looked poised and well rehearsed, while Trump was just scattershooting and rude.  Hillary goaded him and he took the bait.  She had him on his heels most of the night.

Overall I didn't get a warm fuzzy about either.  Ummm....where was the Libertarian candidate?  The stage looked plenty big enough for a third podium to me.   ;)

S

People say (and do) the dumbest things

People are saying and doing the dumbest things these days.  Case in point, the tragic recent shootings of black men by police in Tulsa, OK and Charlotte, NC.

Last week a Tulsa man was shot by a police officer who claims that the victim didn't comply with her commands to stop.  He kept walking away, and at one point he lowered one of his hands, leading the officer to fear he was going for a gun. (He was not.)

The video shown on TV over and over was from a police helicopter circling several hundred feet overhead.  The audio from the helicopter said, "He looks like a bad dude."  Really?  From 200(?) feet overhead what does a "bad dude" look like?  How can you tell?  DUMB!

Then yesterday Presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaking to a largely black audience, said of the victim, "He looked like a nice guy."  Really?  How can you tell what a nice guy looks like from 500(?) miles away?  DUMB!  

Oh, and how about that Don King soliloquy/introduction?  Isn't he a piece of work?  DUMB!

Some in the minority community immediately called for the arrest of Officer Betty Shelby, the shooter.  Doesn't Officer Shelby get a hearing to determine if she acted appropriately or not?  These people say no, just arrest her.  Now.  DUMB!

It seems the Tulsa police received (at least some) body cameras in July, but hadn't yet issued them to patrol officers.  Why?  I would fast-track their implementation....I can't think of one piece of equipment that would be more likely to determine the facts in a police shooting than body cameras.  They may not always be conclusive, but they would be better than the "he said, she said" we have now.  

I would think every honest cop would welcome body cams as a way to show their professionalism and exonerate them after a shooting.  I would think every bad cop would be looking for a new line of work if they thought their body cam would show them doing something likely to send them to prison.  (Good riddance!)  Not using body cams....DUMB!

Then in Charlotte, NC, where police DO have body cams, they aren't releasing the footage of their fatal shooting.  They said they couldn't because they were prohibited from doing so by state law.  Why would legislators pass a law prohibting release of video that could possibly quell protestors if the video showed it to be a justified shooting?  DUMB!

Why do protestors show their outrage by looting a Walmart?  Because it was Walmart's fault?  Why do they destroy a downtown souvenir shop?  Because it was the souvenir shop's fault?  DUMB! 

At least the protestors shown above were venting their anger toward the police.  It still wasn't right, but at least it was focused.

One frustrated Charlotte minority leader went on TV telling blacks to "keep their money in their pockets" and not spend it with white-owned businesses.  Umm....don't those businesses have black employees?  Is putting even more blacks out of work a good thing?  Was this boycott well thought out?  DUMB!

But then it turns out that the new state video law doesn't go into effect until October 1.  So if they can, why haven't the cops released it if it proves their case and stops the rioting now going on?  DUMB!

And if the video doesn't prove their case, if it shows an unjustified shooting, then why are they protecting a guilty cop?  DUMB!

Then on one of the TV news roundtables, when it was pointed out that the Charlotte police shooter was himself black, one of the commentators said it didn't matter.  She said the police were institutionally bigoted, regardless of the race of the officer.  So if you wear a badge you're automatically bigoted?  DUMB!

By inference would that mean that the commentator (the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus) didn't want any police, black, white, Asian, or anyone else to patrol minority neighborhoods?  Then who you gonna call when someone kicks in your back door?  Is it then every man for himself....vigilante justice?  DUMB!

What is wrong with us?  Why are we saying and doing such DUMB things?

S

EDIT:  "Why are we saying and doing such DUMB things?"  I think I've answered my own question.  It's because we only hear what we want to hear, we only see what we want to see, and we only believe what we want to believe.  Now that's DUMB!