Stop Digging This Hole

Hillary's Planned Tax Hikes

    The old adage goes "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging".  Well, Hillary Clinton, Democrat Nominee for President, wants to give everyone a shovel and orders to keep digging.
    Mrs. Clinton's tax plans for her presidency, should she win, includes many tax increases, both business and personal.  She needs this, she thinks, in order to pay for her marvelous gifts she is bestowing on Americans.  Gifts such as universal health care and debt free tuition for college students.  I'm still scratching my head on the debt free tuition.  Are you to borrow money to pay for college and not pay it back?
    Businesses need money to pay the bills, while trying to expand and grow business and hire more workers.  But Hillary wants to take that money, because she and her democrat pals think they can spend it better.  The problem is government cannot spend our money wisely, and there are countless examples of government waste.
    What Hillary and democrats fail to learn is that lower tax rates leads to more tax revenue.  Lower rates lead to growth of the economy, and wealth of all, not just the 1%.  In fact, by laying blame at the feet of, and targeting the incomes of, the top 1%, they are driving  a wedge of class-ism into our people.
    Even if you taxed the top 1% at a 100% rate, you would not come even close to funding the government programs for a year, or making a dent in the national debt.
    John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, all knew that lowering tax rates leads to higher tax revenues.  All three enacted tax cuts and saw the economy grow and revenue into the treasury grow.
    The moose on the table is that growing government even bigger than it is today, is not going to solve our economic woes.  We need to shrink government in both size and scope, and allow the private sector to grow and move this country forward.  In other words, we're in a hole and we need to stop digging.

You've Got Mail

    This week we learned that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has been conspiring to nominate Hillary Clinton as their presidential candidate at the expense of another candidate, Bernie Sanders.   There was a Wikileaks email message dump that had much to demonstrate the unethical, and possibly illegal, activities of the DNC.
    The email dump included emails and contents that show the DNC:

1. used spies within the Sanders campaign to alert Clinton campaign staff of planned activities
2. used groups to protest at Donald Trump campaign events
3. maintained a list of donors and possible positions within the future Clinton administration
4. challenged the religious beliefs of Sanders, who is Jewish
5. conspired with members of news media to plan interview questions
6. conspired with media to approve opinion pieces before appearing online or on TV

    This was only weeks after we finally heard the FBI declare Hillary Clinton a liar regarding her own abuse of email and national intelligence information on her personal email server.  It used to be you followed the money trail to find criminals.  Now you follow the email to catch democrat cheaters.
    The news made such headlines and caused such problems for the DNC that the chairperson, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), to resign he post the day before the national convention.  Worry not for her as she was immediately hired as the honorary chairperson of the Clinton campaign.  Let's just say Clinton and Wasserman-Schultz are continuing their combined efforts to return a Clinton to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
    Democrats are an amazing study of hypocrisy.  Nothing to see here, as they say.
    

More Unsettling of Science

A Guide to Understanding Global Temperature Data
by Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D.
Dr. Spencer explains in this article that the science is anything but settled.  I love this quote from Spencer.
“Besides, if global warming is settled science, like gravity or the Earth not being flat, why isn’t the agreement 100 percent?” Spencer asked. “And since when is science settled by a survey or a poll? The hallmark of a good scientific theory is its ability to make good predictions.”

Divided Americans - Liberals Hate Conservatives

As long as liberals hate conservatives for darn near everything they believe in, there will never be unity in America.

• Disagree on voter id laws and you hate blacks.  You want to reinstate Jim Crow.
• Disagree on Obamacare and you hate grandmothers.  You want them to die for lack of proper health care.
• Disagree on abortion and you hate women.  You want to deny them their reproductive rights.  Note: Abortion is not reproductive.
• Disagree on minimum wage and you hate poor people.  You want families to starve in poverty.
• Disagree on gay marriage and you hate the LGBT people.  You are homophobic.  Note: Phobia is irrational fear of something.
• Disagree on education policy and you hate children.  You oppose the choice of people going to better schools.
• Disagree on immigration policy and you hate immigrants.  You oppose all legal immigrants also.
• Disagree on Syrian refugee policy and you hate all Muslims. 
• Disagree on global warming and you hate the planet and animals.  You want to poison the air and water.
• Disagree on unions and you hate working people.
• Disagree on taxes and you hate 99% of the people.
• Disagree on Social Security and you hate the elderly.
• Disagree on gun control and you hate school children who may die in the next mass shooting.
• Disagree on mortgage policy and you hate blacks trying to move to a better neighborhood.
• Disagree on affirmative action and you hate minorities, women and disabled people.

    There is no room for gray area in their thinking. With so much hate you have no option but to hate.  I, for one, could never associate with the liberal left or I would be required to hate so many people.  Conservatives are so much more optimistic about America and Americans than liberals.  Liberals repeat the narrative that conservatives are fearmongerers, racists, bigots, Fascists and Nazis.

Liberals have good intentions and they think that is enough.  If they mean well, then everything they do is good.  Results do not matter. 

• So what if 60 years of the welfare state have failed to lift so many out of poverty. 
• So what if abortion kills millions of babies. 
• So what if higher minimum wages result in lower employment. 
• So what if Obamacare raised costs and lowered availability and quality. 
• So what if we cannot keep illegal immigrants from taking jobs of citizens. 
• So what if we cannot distinguish between peace loving Muslims and jihadists.
• So what if we're deeper in debt than ever.
• So what if schools are overburdened with the task of parenting and teaching students.
• So what if non registered people vote in elections.
• So what if tariffs cause costs of products to go up while jobs go down.
• So what if higher tax rates take money from entrepreneurs who could otherwise hire employees.
• So what if gun free zones become target rich for mass murderers.

Reaction Without Thought

    For many years our society and culture have produced more things in less time than previously dreamt of.  We started with mass production of products through machines and automation.  Improved technology meant higher technological gains in automation, robotics, and logistics.
    Meanwhile, our lives were constantly improving and speeding up.  Technology in the home improved with microwave ovens, garage door openers, and more devices being enabled for online wireless use.  Telephones became mobile and were detached from the wall or desk.  Shopping became something you could do from home.  The world became faster and faster paced.
    As a result, our habits acclimated to the speed of our machines.  We withdrew from our neighborhoods into our homes and stopped spending time sitting on the porch in the summertime watching our kids play in the yards.
    Our socializing also automated and went online in the form as social media.  This step has produced many negative results.  The speed with which we react to news is lightning quick, and many times without thought.  Many people rush to pick up their mobile device to share a reaction with millions of others rushing to their mobile devices to record events.  Many of the recorded events are mundane and boring.  Many, however, are of much more importance and require thought and analysis.
    Birthday parties, vacations at the beach, or dinner with friends are items of interest only to a few, and even then they rank low on the importance scale.  Paying attention to those things that "go viral" will cause you wonder about the lives of some people that make such things to be viewed by so many, and commented on. 
    Videos of police interactions with citizens, or the aftermath of a crime scene, require a bit more thought.  I recall seeing a video of people at an airport rushing toward the sounds of gunfire with their smart phones in video mode trying to capture the scene, probably in a desire to be first online with the live action, but not realizing the danger they are placing themselves directly into.
    Most of us recall watching legal dramas on TV or in movies, and so have a somewhat informed view of what goes on during a trial.  Witnesses, evidence, testimony, lawyers, judge and jury all play a role in determining truth and fact, before deciding guilt or innocence.  Yet in our desire to be first and fastest, we boil a trial down into a 3 minute video from a smart phone, and determine guilt or innocence in a flash.  Justice?  Not even close.
    My wish for civilization is that we begin to think more and react less on matters of such importance.  We need to be more critical of ourselves and what we decide to share with our friends and family, but understand online these things will live forever and be viewed and reacted to by a large number of people.   Therefore we should be a bit more methodical in what we choose to share and how quickly we share it.  A casual review of various social media feeds will provide many items which would better be kept private, at least for a little while.
    A good rule of thumb would be to ask yourself if you would share such thoughts with the people you were commenting on to their face.   Then and only then click submit.

Too Much To Say on Facebook

    Where to begin?  Well, the title says a lot.  There are so many things I want to say about current events that simply do not play well on social media sites.  Not enough space and too little time in view.  So here goes.
    Recent events around the black lives matter events, police office shootings, and other related events give me much pause.  I pray for all of the people involved who died, survived and now must find a way to move forward in life.  I cannot make sense of the senseless.
    Shooting 12 police officers from a sniper's nest is just plain wrong under any circumstances I can imagine.  This act of violence does not make right any wrong doing by any police officer anywhere.  It is vigilante justice and cold blooded murder.  It cannot be repeated, justified, or explained away.
    We live in a free society, and as such, people are free to pretty much do as they please, as long as they do not infringe on others' rights to the same.  That goes for police, citizens and visitors in our country.  We must assume a certain amount of risk that there are bad people making bad decisions in this life, and we may suffer the consequences of those actions.  We can only deal with a majority of crimes, we cannot eliminate them.  Laws do not prevent crimes.  Laws make punishing criminals possible.  Hence, there will always be criminals.
    Social media, including the news media, has been reduced to sound bites and short video clips.  We have developed a sense of decision making based on quick bursts of partial amounts of data and information.  We tend to make rash decisions as a result.  We do not stop and think.  We do not think critically enough at times.  This hurts us a nation and as people.
    We spend more time finding blame than solutions.  Dialogue is needed, but that means listening and speaking.  I probably do not listen well enough often enough, but I get better as I grow older.  I have strong opinions that I can support with facts and expert opinions.  Others have as well.  That does not mean we are always right.
    I believe our country was founded on the best possible principles for any group of people to live under.  Our constitution is a great document which we are abandoning piece by piece.  We were once a principled, united nation, but now we are becoming a selfish, splintered one.  We have changed from 'e pluribus unum' to groups of aggrieved persons constantly finding fault with one another.  For a while after 9/11 we joined together, but it lasted only a brief time.
    Our country is great but not without a history of doing wrong to people.  Though we treated some groups with hatred and distrust, we always worked toward improving ourselves.  We fought wars to free people around the world, and in our own country.  Groups of people battled to gain the equality they deserved.  They met resistance, but then they won over large numbers of people to their cause.
    This is still the greatest nation ever devised on earth, but it must be maintained and continually improved.  Any actions we take, or words we speak, must be for the greater good of all. 
    I am never going to agree with all people always on some issues, but I think we can all agree that the United States of America deserves our best efforts to peacefully find solutions and to value each other as flawed human beings.
   I wrote this in rather general terms, as my blog posts contain my positions on specific matters.  More will be added over time on various topics.

Willful Ignorance

Washington Obsessed with Punishing Secrecy Violations


    Glenn Greenwald, of the The Intercept, published this piece about how obsessed Washington DC is with protecting secrets.  Following the FBI director's refusal to recommend indictment of Hillary Clinton after detailing her assorted crimes against the USA by violating secrecy.
    If you heard Director Comey, or read the transcript of his remarks, you cannot think there is no "there" there.  He detailed her many violations of the proper handling of classified and secret information based on her personal email server and procedures.  In so doing, he highlighted her many lies, repeated many times over, to all of us.  Several websites and news agencies have detailed the many lies perpetrated on us by Mrs. Clinton.  If any prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, this case presents a smorgasbord of possible criminal activity.
    Yet already I have heard the democrat water carriers out in full force claiming Mrs. Clinton was exonerated by the FBI probe.  Au contraire!  Refusal to recommend charges is not exoneration.
    Mrs. Clinton has been exposed as a liar, a mean and vindictive woman, and an unscrupulous politician, who should never be allowed near the Oval Office.  She simply cannot be trusted by the American people.
    Greenwald's piece indicates there are two very different standards.  One for most Americans and another for highly places politicians, like Hillary.  If anyone thinks there is no justice in America, they tend to lean toward the political left, and blame the political right.  This example of injustice should server as a warning to us all, that injustice serves no one, right or left.
    You may think Hillary's opponent in the fall election is unfit for office, and you may be right.  But we know much more about Hillary's lack of judgment, integrity, honesty and fitness.  She should not be elected president.

I Could Not Agree More

What Are We Celebrating

   Dr. Thomas Sowell explains what is at the heart of my concerns about the future of the United States.  As we approach yet another 'most important' presidential election, I see trouble on the horizon for our country.
   I have fear for the continuation of our freedom and our exceptional existence as the most powerful and most free country in the history of mankind.
   Dr. Sowell puts my concerns into powerful words which I wholeheartedly agree with.