President Trump Taking Kung-Fu Lessons From Reagan

                                                                   

Flashback to 1981.  For the past five years an Asian nation, the world's new second largest economic power, was eating America's lunch.  Enacting such high trade barriers an American apple was priced at ten bucks per apple.  On the manufacturing front that Asian nation sold nearly 5 million automobiles to America, while America sold a paltry 4,000 autos in that Asian stronghold.  Incredibly, 67 percent of American commerce was made up with that Asian nation's products.

The Asian nation was of course Japan.  President Jimmy Carter came begging on several occasions, trying to talk that Asian nation into playing fair on trade.  They simply laughed at him and offered him seconds on his Kobe  beef dinner.  The Japanese then toured America, replacing "the ugly American of the 50's" into the "ugly Japanese of the 70's and 80's.  They employed their inflated Yen to buy American greenbacks and bought up half of Manhattan.  On a personal note; when we were stationed in Hawaii it was not unusual to find a Japanese walking up to your door and offering to buy your home.  And they were huge buyers in those days.

When Ronald Reagan took office he was burdened with a whole host of economic problems.....aggressive trade union bosses demanding annual 20 percent worker pay raises, mortgage rates topping 20 percent, an exodus of U.S. manufacturing jobs, a still aggressive Soviet Union, and U.S. government regulation that was strangling established businesses and snuffing the life out of infant businesses before they could blossom.

Reagan mounted an all out front on all of those problems.  He jaw-boned the labor unions and had to fire all his air traffic controllers to send labor a message.  He employed Paul Volker to wring inflation out of the economy.  He told the Soviets if they want a weapons contest he was ready for it.    He then slashed millions of pages of red tape and encouraged new businesses like Apple and Home Depot and Walmart to take a chance on him.  Finally he turned to Japan.  And Japan laughed.....but not for long.  Reagan imposed barriers on Japanese automobiles and semi-conductors and consumer electronics.  And soon those $800 dollar Sony VCR's began gathering dust on the shelves, and Americans were posing for the newspapers with sledge hammers and crushed cars and TV's.

Reagan's trade war took four years.  And at the Plaza Accords in September, 1985 Japan agreed to inflate their currency and lower their trade barriers.  Not satisfied, Reagan insisted Japan begin to build auto manufacturing plants in America........employing America workers.

Alas, Japan, inexperienced in managing an open economy, began suffering what has now become a 30 year recession.  The Japanese big wigs began to sell off their Tokyo office towers for distressed prices.  Soon the Japanese cigar-chompers were selling off their Manhattan and Hawaii properties.  And Japan long ago surrendered the title of 2nd largest economy, largely because America began eating their lunch with incredible electronic and medical and scientific discoveries, and using the internet to market those discoveries.

President Trump is now employing many of Reagan's tactics as he has called China on the carpet.  Just today (Wednesday) China's President Xi said Trump's tariffs doesn't bother him.  He says China will expand their domestic economy and do just fine.  To that I say "Good Luck".  Let's see him replace $550 billions of American purchases with an average Chinese consumer who pulls in $100 bucks a month.

One added note:  (and you can look it up) When Reagan was declaring a trade war with Japan the Democratic party stood at their respective podiums in House and Senate and declared Reagan mad.....that no one could stop the Japanese onslaught.   Japan would now beg to differ.  They learned the hard way....and the expensive way....not to tangle with America.

Will Trump be as steadfast as Reagan with China?  Only time will tell.  But let's give him credit for trying......something no President has had the courage to do since Reagan.

Lost in America: Those Pesky Asian-American Kids

Lost in America: Those Pesky Asian-American Kids:                                                                           You all know their cultural profile. They tend to sit at ...

Those Pesky Asian-American Kids

                                                                         

You all know their cultural profile. They tend to sit at the front of the class. They take notes. Actually tote their homework home.

They get home, then work in the family restaurant, or small grocery, or in the soybean and citrus garden. They then sit for a couple of hours of homework. There's no television or gaming going on during the week. In their "spare time" they are reading the college recommended reading list....when still in the 5th grade.

For SAT preparation their parents have sacrificed ten percent of the family income on a tutor. Library copies of SAT preparation books cover every available surface of the child's bedroom.

And when the SAT tests come around many, many of those Asian kids score in the stratosphere, some of them with perfect scores every year.

Until ten or fifteen years ago that route to academic excellence scored them admission into the elite universities. And those Asian American kids would go on to be doctors, lawyers, electronic engineers, medical researchers, or business tycoons.

No more. When Harvard and the other Ivy League schools, and Stanford, and University of California, Berkley went all PC they began to severely curtail the admissions of those Asian Americans and began giving their university seats to Blacks and Hispanics of both the legal and illegal variety. Asian Americans were then forced to attend secondary universities if they wanted to get educated.

Somehow, in typical Buddhist fashion, those Asian families tolerated the reverse discrimination. Then, late last year the American College Board announced that they would begin assigning "poverty points" to the national SAT scores, the reasoning being that Asian Americans were given an advantage by being raised in a family with a goals oriented lifestyle, spiced with thousands of hours of hard work.

Not fair said the College Board. We need to start rewarding ghetto sloth and barrio crime rates. We have to factor in welfare queen mothers, and percentage of neighborhood drug use, and gang activity, then award "bonus points" on the test for the ghetto/barrio lifestyle.

Well, this time those Asian American moms and dads, and White American moms and dads said "enough is enough". Already favored with higher entrance quotas over the rest of America, Blacks and Hispanics ought not to be awarded still another leg up on a SAT test. The test ought to be graded on how knowledgeable a student is.

So yesterday the College Board announced they were backing off the award of "ghetto/barrio bonus points". The President of the College Board said "that's okay, we'll give university entrance counsellors other forms of data that will allow them to cherry pick poorly scoring minorities, and discriminate against those kids who did it the right way. "

After all, whoever said life is fair, right?

278-270

                                                                         

The other day I was reviewing the 2016 Presidential electoral map.  In that year Trump pulled out the first 21st century miracle by capturing Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.    For 2020 that presents a problem for Trump.  In 2016 the Blacks of Philadelphia slept, not rallying for Honky Hillary.  Accordingly Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania was able to offset Philadelphia's traditionally heavy Democratic turnout.  So PA went red.  Pennsylvania will not go red again.  Philadelphia is going to be geared up for free healthcare, student loan forgiveness and for slavery reparations.  So PA goes back to blue.

In Michigan Trump's promise to bring more auto jobs has largely gone unfulfilled.  Despite Trump's jawboning, the big three are still turning out cars in Mexico, and expanding operations in the south.  So don't look for Michigan to go red again.

That leaves Wisconsin, who only recently tossed their Republican governor, with Democrats threatening to take the statehouse next year.  And the Wisconsin folks are no longer throwing a snippy fit about Hillary ignoring them.  Look for Wisconsin to go back to blue.

Those three states represent 46 electoral votes.  Trump won with a whopping 306 in 2016.  Take those 46 electoral votes away and Trump is sitting at exactly 270, assuming he wins every swing state and sweeps the south.

Since 270 is needed to win everything's cool, right?  

Well, except the Democrats, absent Hillary, pretty much have 278 in their pocket.  That trumps Trump's 270.  Even worse, Iowa and my home state of Arizona is showing signs of turning purple.....maybe even Blue.   

The rest of the states are so solidly blue even Hillary couldn't lose them in 2016.  So I just don't see where Trump steals enough blue states in 2020 to compensate for those 46 electoral gifts Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania gave him in 2016.

Your thoughts?

On The "Crazy Old Men" Front

                                                                       

Crazy Joe Biden, as he campaigned through Iowa and New Hampshire this week, said America would have had a nervous breakdown if Barack Hussein Obama had been assassinated before taking office cause we would have missed all those wonderful accomplishments.

During that same speech Biden gave Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King an extra decade of life as he pronounced them being killed in the late 70's.

Then Joe talked about how rabid he was in support of the Woman's Equal Rights Amendment. Crazy Joe said critics called him gay. But he bravely stood up to that assault on his manhood.

In a similar vein Joe's spouse, Jill Biden said Joe ain't exactly yogurt with your favorite fruit at the bottom but he was her yogurt and he has the best chance of defeating President Trump. In other words, Joe is crazy but he's not as batshit crazy as Harris and Warren and Sanders.

Joe's keepers are keeping a tight rein on him but they just could not seem to stop him from giving King and Kennedy an extra decade of life.

Over at the Trump White House Donald Trump said he had considered awarding himself the Congressional Medal of Honor but his aides advised against it. (He did accept the mantle of "The Chosen One".)

Then, after declaring any Jew who votes Democrat as a traitor to their brethren, The Donald said we don't need to trade with the World's 2nd largest economy to succeed.

On a personal note, this week I read in National Review that Donald Trump is crazy but not as crazy as the Democrats. I tend to agree.

Where are Washington, Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan when we really need them.

Would Tom Be As Terrific Today?

                                                                         

For those of us who still revere our founding fathers there may be no one more important to our founding than Thomas Jefferson.  Through his poetic and almost melodic Declaration Of Independence he charted the course for a republic built on the finest social and political philosophies of the 16th to 18th centuries.

Still, I wonder how many of us could vote for Tom today, should he rise from his grave and declare his candidacy.  If we can believe what Jefferson said, and believe that he really meant it, pretty much everyone on the political spectrum would be a little ill at ease.

For example, Jefferson said repeatedly that our Constitution ought to be re-written every 20 years or so.  That was the period of time when one generation should be ready to pass on their legacy to the next batch of citizenry.  Am I the only one that finds that idea a bit frightening?  Would we want the current crop of snowflakes writing the legal and political foundation for our governance?  Can you even imagine what would go into our new founding document?  

Being a Jeffersonian admirer I'm willing to give Tom a pass on that one.  After all, I can't believe he would say that today, although he did on many occasions say that our governance was for the living....and not the dead.

That Jefferson was a revolutionary goes without saying.  He was passionate in his opposition to King George.  And just as passionate post war when Washington, Hamilton and Adams promoted an all powerful central government as Federalists.  When Jefferson won the Presidency he worked hard to undo pretty much all that Adams had done during his term.  Jefferson balanced the federal budget, paid off our national debt, mocked the Aliens and Seditions Acts and restored the balance of power between Washington and the states.

Again turning to Jefferson's revolutionary tendencies, he said, and I quote "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with blood of patriot and tyrant".  That assertion today would get Tom incarcerated in a nice federal prison somewhere.  And it would certainly scare the bejesus out of a good swath of today's apathetic citizenry.

One of Jefferson's quote proved quite prophetic.  He warned that, when the citizenry opted to vote themselves benefits at the expense of the nation's productive, we'd be in real trouble.  Who doubts today, with that $20 trillion dollar national debt, and huge annual deficits, we've realized Jefferson's worst fears.

We can forgive Jefferson for his thoughts about an educated electorate.  In his day an educated man would have studied the literary classics, would have read the most important political philosophies, and could have read them in both Latin and Greek.  Jefferson's ideal citizen, as he described him, would be a farmer who plowed his fields by day, and read Plato in the Greek by his fireside at night.  Sadly, America is now populated with folks who can't even read English, and the only Greek they encounter is the feta cheese on their Caesar Salad.

Jefferson also said "That government is best which governs the least, because the people govern themselves."  Oh what a laugher that is today as government at every level insinuates itself into our daily lives.

I guess Jeffersons thoughts and words only matter to those who still revere him.  The latest generation of Americans are trying to banish him from the history books.  After all, he was just a slave owner who buggered Sally Hemings and overspent on his re-models of Monticello.  Jefferson seems only to be loved by those billions of oppressed around the world, still seeking freedom they've never known.....and we've known too well.

Choosing Sides

                                                                   

As we witness the socio-political strife in Charlotte and Portland, and the various terror plots blooming like spring daisies, we are seeing what I predicted years ago; the cleaving of America.........led by the 20 percent on the far right and the far left. This will eventually lead to America's 2nd Civil War. A study of history reveals that same old tired pattern, no matter how much you wish it were not so. Civil disturbances are always caused by the zealots on the far edge of the spectrum.

We might best learn from that 1st Civil War. Prior to the 1861 kick-off America suffered a decade of pre-war violence. John Brown was leading an abolitionist crusade in Kansas and Missouri, and leaving dead bodies in his wake. The more refined Northeast abolitionists were leading a charge to transform their Whig party into a Republican party crusade to end slavery. Those abolitionists on the eastern seaboard would influence the 1860 election and win Abraham Lincoln his new party's presidential nomination.

Down south South Carolina was leading the charge. Long before firing on Ft. Sumter they were stirring dissent at the Democratic nominating convention. And poor Democratic moderate, Stephen Douglas, could not quell the secession fires. Soon, one by one, the southern states voted to secede from the union, even as more moderates voices were calling for compromise with their northern neighbors.

On "Main Street" the "little people"........so far down the power totem pole from their elected leaders, experienced a whole host of feelings about an impending war. Some were anxious to grab musket and go out to fight. Other, more thoughtful citizens stood stunned, unable to believe that America would war with her own kind. Others, the vast majority of whom owned no slaves at all, wondered why a war was necessary.

Sadly there was just too much brimstone and fire from the more agitated elements on "left and right". The 20 percent on each side overrode that "soft middle" 60 percent who were horrified that war was about to break out.

We Americans are now suffering from those same conditions that preceded the 1st Civil War. Most find it unfathomable that a 2nd Civil War, if not imminent, is at least likely that we will again be at war with each other within the next decade or so. Our politicians are as divided over governing philosophies as we have ever been. And so many, from both parties, are unprincipled charlatans. Rather than seek compromise they opt for divisiveness as a tool to win power. Though our politicos have not taken to caning each other in the halls of Congress, as they did in the 1860's, there is a malevolence not seen in Congress since the McCarthy era. And, more cowardly than their 19th century peers, today's politicians use the art of rhetoric to stir up the masses and let them do the dirty work.

That 2nd Civil War in America will start when the "middle 60 percent" can no longer hide behind their walls and use reality TV and talent contests to divert their attention from what's going on in the streets. More Left versus Right street brawls will flare up, more mass killings, driven by political ideology, will occur so that it becomes unsafe to send your kids to school, go out to a movie or a mall, or even ferry the little ones to Walmart for back to school sales.

Sanity will be sought at the voting booth but Americans will find their choices on either side are poor choices indeed. Alas, there will no Lincoln to instill a bit of humanity into the American psyche. Instead we will be choosing between semi-dictatorships from both Right or Left.........and opting for the candidate who is most likely to "keep the trains running on time"........a metaphor for the restoration of a little social stability.

Sadly the only prescription for our current ills will be a bloody war, fought not in the green pastures of Virginia, or Pennsylvania, or on the cliffs of Vicksburg. This 2nd Civil War will be fought on the urban mean streets and the suburbs. And don't ever let anyone tell you that a standing army of a million can quell the violence of 330 million. It's just not happening.

So if you're a member of that "soft middle 60" percent who abhors the thought of a 21st Century Civil War, well I feel sorry for you. At some point, very soon, you're gonna have shut down the gaming systems, shut off your TV, put down your smart phone, and do some hard thinking about which side you are on. You may be sacrificing your life for a cause you probably didn't choose so it may as well be for the cause you most believe in.

Woodstock Glory?

                                                                 

I've pretty much reached the gag point on this week's media glorification of Woodstock. What was Woodstock? Was it a "love-in?" Was it an awakening for a generation? Nope. It was simply a mass assembly of dopers and folks who gathered in place to diss their parents; The Greatest Generation who weathered The Great Depression and fought a war to preserve the liberties of billions world-wide.

What did the Woodstock Generation contribute? They introduced America to dope on a massive scale, said it was okay to refuse to serve in the armed forces, and fornicate with abandon, disregarding the epidemic of sexually transmitted disease and relegating the term "father" to just a line on a birth certificate.

Then, once they got too old to collect an allowance from Mom and Pop, they formulated a society hell bound on our national destruction. Many of that generation went into teaching, and indoctrinating the next generations into a "everyone gets a blue ribbon", Dr. Spock/It Takes A Village mindset that birthed at least two generations of "safe space-seeking" snowflakes. Others, ironically, went to Wall Street and created the Great Recession with their CDO's.....in pursuit of three car garages and luxury goods.......material goods they once criticized their parents for.

Thank god I didn't burn my draft card in exchange for a piece of ass. Thank god I was in uniform and fighting a war when Woodstock took place. Thank god that I embraced the work ethic and moral principles of a Greatest Generation mother.

So, no. I don't see any "heroes" in that Woodstock crowd. I don't even see Woodstock as something novel. Nero's Roman orgies and the crowds at Sodom and Gomorrah were pretty much Woodstock's brethren.

                                                                   

I'm done. Now take your tie-die and stick it where the sun don't shine.

"Those Wacky Wiberals"

                                                                 

The mayor of Philadelphia, through his statement this morning calling for more restrictive gun control, proves indisputably that liberals are the most ignorant creatures on earth.

Consider: There were already laws on the books in Philadelphia (and across the entire U.S.) that prohibits felons from owning handguns

The shooter did not care. Procuring guns, even though it was against the law, was the least of his concerns.

So, Mr. Mayor, how would your municipal gun controls prevent shooter thugs like this from owning guns? Do you not watch the news out of Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago?

A far wiser suggestion would be to keep these thug bastards locked up so go talk to all those liberal judges who impose short sentences for those thugs. Keep em caged as they are worse than animals.

Pray for your liberal brethren, ladies and gents. It's almost a miracle that they can even walk around with their stunted brain stems.

"Buddy, Can You Spare A Few Dozen Trillion?"

                                                                         

On this date in 1935 President Roosevelt signed legislation creating the Social Security Program. In the years hence Uncle Sam has collected tens of trillions of dollars......and paid out even more, to many who aren't deserving.

The program, when it first began, was meant to supplement a worker's retirement earnings. It was not meant to be a program to fully support the elderly. In the intervening years Social Security has been a piggy bank to shell out a living for folks who never saved a dime toward their own retirement and is even an additional welfare program for millions who claim bad backs and other ailments that are hard to medically dispute. Since government bureaucrats aren't spending their own money we now have millions on the Social Security disability program and the "gamers" are only rarely caught hauling out refrigerators on their back, or engaging in some weekend touch football.

Before I go on, will just one of you please name me one government benefit program that was ever terminated? And please name a single government program that began modestly, then didn't grow into a monstrous and expensive benefit giveaway!

Now let's look at why the Social Security and Social Security Disability programs grew faster than bladder cancer. 

When Social Security first started you were taxed on the first $3,000 of your earnings, at 2 percent of your income, then they left you alone for the rest of the year.

Over the years Social Security payouts grew, as did the amount taxed as well as the maximums the government taxed you on.

From that modest 2 percent of your wages, with that $3,000 dollar max, Social Security now taxes you on the first $106,000 of your earnings at 12.4 percent with another 3 percent or so kicked in by your employer. (If you are self employed you get to pay the 15 percent yourself). However, even that wasn't good enough for a greedy government. When Bill Clinton was in office he started taxing you on your own Social Security check if you even came close to being middle class...........money they taxed you on the first time around.

Wish I could say that's the worst of it. But it's not. In 1965 the biggest sugar daddy that ever hailed from Texas....Lyndon Johnson....started Medicare/Medicaid. While Medicare was fine for our elderly Medicaid became an instrument to run up our health care costs by giving free health care to anyone who could claim poverty.........regardless if that poverty was self-imposed through an unwillingness to work. Not only did our Social Security withholdings soar but LBJ tacked on an additional 3 percent for Medicare taxes.

As a result of this runaway government spending the working stiff found that a stay in a hospital went from $20 or $30 bucks a day to that astronomical daily charge today. And the parties who most benefited were medical insurance companies, hospitals and millions of the lame and lazy. Who fared the worst? Yep, the working stiff not on the government dole.

Could it get worse? Well, no...........as long as you don't mind spanking new green card holders (who never paid in to either program) getting a minimum $1,000 monthly payout based on "poverty status".

This past year our government took in approximately $3 trillion dollars in taxes and fees. Of that total more than $1.3 trillion is spent on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Disability. That leaves a little more than half of all government income to pay for all the other government programs.....like education, housing, food stamps, national defense, research, farm subsidies, etc.

Ah, but take heart. Your government masters are saying we can stave off Social Security bankruptcy (in 2030 or so) by raising the retirement age. The closer to the grave you are the better able the government is to balancing the program income deficits. But please note that there are no plans to audit Medicaid (Medicaid beneficiaries cannot even be charged a doctor's co-pay). Nor are they cutting out the pay outs to green card weenies who come here, plead poverty, and get a $1,000 dollar check every month.

I'm still waiting for anyone to answer my two questions, as posed above. 1) Have you ever seen a government program terminated once it started? 2) Have you ever seen a government program that wasn't a thousand times more expensive than when it was first proposed?

Let's take of our elderly and those who are ailing at any age. But, for god's sake, let's start auditing these programs and cull out the lame and lazy. If you are able-bodied you ought to either work and pay for those benefits.......or get sent packing. None of us want to see SS retirement age raised to 80.

Sigh.

Did The Clintons Pull A "Vince Foster" On Epstein?

                                                               

President Trump at least suggested that the Clintons might have been involved in Epstein's jailers not conducting their 30 minutes checks on the jail's suicide watch ordered for Epstein. That might, and did sound a little far-fetched when first read. However, I am very suspicious of how Epstein was able to kill himself, especially after that first futile attempt. 

So, I ask you this: Considering the many big political names, former heads of state, the many millionaires and billionaires that Epstein might have "outed" during his trial, how difficult would it be for those rich and powerful men to deposit a few million in a Swiss bank account as bribes for Epstein's jailers? 

This stinks to high heaven and I'm sure we will never find out how Epstein died. He might have even been strangled by those who imprisoned him.......again for a few million secretly deposited into a Swiss or Bahamian bank account for his murderer. 

Maybe I'm biased but I suspect it was Hillary and Bill up to their old tricks..........fully funded by the Clinton foundation.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-official-tells-times-jail-170103967.html?.tsrc=fauxdal

Rain Dancing

                                                                       

As I sit here in Phoenix this morning, trying to summon a bit of my Cherokee heritage to execute a rain dance, I couldn't help but think about why we humans love rain so much.

We kind of instinctively know that rain is a life force, bringing a cool respite from the heat and drenching the seeds that will eventually blossom into plants and flowers...and yeah, sometimes weeds.

But, in contemplating the "nurture vs nature" conundrum, I think we humans hark back to our neolithic days...when we stood at the mouth of a cave and felt warm and sheltered while nature was doing its thing out there. Somewhere in our DNA we moderns still enjoy that same feeling whenever the rains come. That's why we feel so warm and cozy in a car, while driving through a pouring rain, the wipers doing a jig on the windshield as we sit all cozied up, our favorite tunes playing on the radio.

And that's why we love standing out on the back patio and watching streams of water flowing off the roof, the sounds of traffic and people silenced and stilled by that back yard waterfall. And, if we're really lucky we might someday fall peacefully asleep to the sound of rain pounding down on an old tin roof.

My wife and I used to love walking in the rain, especially in Hawaii where it came down warm and gentle; caressing your face, the scent of plumeria and ginger blossoms permeating your senses. 

We humans seem to love rain so much that we write odes and songs about it, often using the rain as a metaphor for a sadness we sometimes struggle with. 

The weather folks say we've still got a chance of some scattered showers today. I'm hoping and hopping in my Cherokee rain dance for a few moments of rainy magic this morn. How about you?

A "Logical" Discussion On Gun Control"

                                                                         

"Logic: (from the Greek "logos", which has a variety of meanings including word, thought, idea, argument, account, reason or principle) is the study of reasoning, or the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. It attempts to distinguish good reasoning from bad reasoning."

Were I President Trump I would call for a bi-partisan commission to study this early century's mass killings and exactly what role federal, state and local governments could and should assume to prevent these tragedies.

The commission would include government representatives from both parties as well as representatives from law enforcement, judges, Constitutional scholars, average citizens, select members of both the IRA as well as those who advocate for stricter gun laws.

But I would also assign to that commission two or three totally neutral highly regarded academicians who hold PHD's in the science of Logic.

Then, as the sundry members of that commission gather to discuss the factors that contribute to these mass killings, they must agree to have any proposal they offer subjected to a rigorous examination of their proposal, using the science of Logic as the final determining factor. This eliminates the "white noise" of emotion, political views......and certainly pat, overly simplistic answers to what is a complex problem.

As this commission sits and sips on orange juice, or coffee, or flavored waters, then tosses out various suggestions, it would be perfectly okay to discuss various viewpoints. But in the end those two or three Logic professors would have to scrub every proposal, using the principals of logic before any are accepted as a solution.

Had that commission met right after Sandy Hook a few years ago gun control advocates (as they surely did) might suggest background checks for anyone who wishes to purchase a gun. Ah, but then one of those crusty old Logic professors might ask "since the shooter son stole his weapon from his parents, how would stricter gun control have prevented the Sandy Hook tragedy?"

Of course that Logic scrub down would shoot down the Sandy Hook solution within seconds, with gun rights advocates tossing in such bon mots as "what about Chicago's Southside three dozen weekend killings each and every week, even as the city has the most stringent gun laws in the nation?"

Another gun control advocate might propose we at least take the guns out of the hands of "the crazies!" "Well", says the old Logic professor, "one must remember that the Democratic party legislated a ban on forcibly institutionalizing the mentally retarded. So how do we isolate and neutralize those with mental disturbances?" Alas, another popular gun control proposal shot down by the science of Logic.

Perhaps after days and weeks and months of commission discussions enough people on that commission might throw up their hands and say "well, hell, what CAN we do?"

Then, hopefully, those commission members might look on these mass killings as products of several societal shifts in the last three decades. They might now find it politically acceptable to put away the crazies at the first mad rant on social media, or at the first sign of mental instability. The members might finally conclude that violent video games and violent movies and TV shows play a role in gun violence. They might look at the number of guns available today versus 50 years ago and realize that those World War II and Korean vets brought an awful lot of weapons home with them.........yet chose not to kill anyone as movie and TV decency standards were still enforced.

That bi-partisan commission, stripped of all their political hype by those Logic professors, might finally come to some reasonable decisions involving a whole host of causative factors, then finally agree on how "logically" we might find a solution to both Chicago's Southside "weekend warriors" as well as the crazies who are home just now, dreaming up a whole new way to annihilate their fellow man.

That commission might finally realize that no gun in history has ever killed anyone. It is the one pulling the trigger. Take away the guns and the lunatics will mow down 50 people with their car, or release chemical toxins in a train station, or fly airplanes into skyscrapers.

Logic is a beautiful thing. It defeats emotion, it shoots down the notion that an oppressive government bureaucracy will keep you safe, and it provides rational solutions to the most complex of problems.

Corporate Migration

                                                                     

Surprise, Surprise! Seems that in the last year more than a hundred Wall Street firms have fled New York for the sunny tax free shores of Florida. Weary of supporting New York's Socialist Mayor, Deblasio, those footing the bill for increasingly generous benefits to the lame and lazy, have packed their desks and file cabinets and fled to Palm Beach.

I had read about this trend several months ago. As New York and high tax Connecticut lose corporations who have parked in those states for more than a hundred years, their California brethren are moving to Nevada, Texas and Arizona for relief from taxation and regulation. Don't know which corporate migrants are moving to Texas or Nevada but in just twelve short months Microsoft has been building plants and service centers in West Phoenix. Nike is going ahead in building a shoe factory, even without state incentives, and Intel is expanding their foot print in both the East and West Valley.

Just three years ago corporate surveys had Phoenix running in the middle of the pack as prime corporate locations. Then a few things happened. Companies started looking at a business friendly Arizona statehouse and lower energy costs. Then Phoenix began to be an oasis for average citizens as well when President Trump stopped the practice of the rest of America subsidizing California's high tax rates. Limiting deductions for state taxes and mortgage and interest deductions to $10,000 proved a slam dunk to those who were already considering leaving Mexifornia. Now the exodus has become a stampede.

Personally I would like those Californians to stay where they are. Having finally decided to shed their California "shitty diaper", they often come here and, before long, begin complaining that "that's not how we did it in California". Sadly those transplants have turned once dark red Arizona a light shade of purple. These new migrants never seem to understand that we have it good here because we DON'T do it like they do in California.

Praying For Liz, Bernie and Kamala

                                                               

Praying For Bernie, Liz and Kamala

The latest The Hill poll shows Joe Biden leading Bernie Sanders by 34 to 17 percent. His lead triples over "Pochahantas Liz and Kamala "the hump" Harris. That disappoints and worries me. I'm cheering for the DNC to nominate any of the "terrible three" to win the nomination over Biden.

Should Warren, Sanders or Harris win Trump's re-election is a slam dunk. And the answer can be found in the Democratic polling. Moderate Democrats and Independents do not support the terrible three's grand giveaway, nor their position on open borders and amnesty for every Mexican, Guatemalan and Honduran who cross our southern border.

Biden on the other hand has been careful to tack to the "Middle Left". His speeches have just been obscure enough that, should he win the nomination, he can move back to the middle and cast his 23 Democratic opponents into the political loony bin.

If it's Trump or Biden the race then becomes a choice between which old man is crazier. Yes, Biden will no doubt stumble and embarrass his party. Crazy Joe has shown in all his previous runs for President that he can't keep his mouth from motoring something really, really stupid. 

Problem is Trump is every bit as poor spoken as Biden. The race then depends how staunchly Biden embraces the middle .....and convinces moderates and Independents that his IQ is ten points higher than Trump. (85 versus 80?...oh god, what have we come to.)

So, yeah, I'm cheering like hell for Pochahantas, or "Everything's Free Bernie", or "Hump Your Way To The Top Kamala". Democratic polling is already showing even Democrats know there's a bill for those trillions of government giveaways......and refuse to swallow what only the young snowflakes are buying.

Trust me. We do not want to see two bumbling old gents fight it out for the Presidency.