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The World According to Mikey

 Warning, I am neither Republican nor

Democrat (NPP) but I lean fiscal conservative and

social libertarian.  I also like practicing my logic and

beliefs by articulating them below.  'An opinion

without facts is just an opinion.'

         - Favorite Quotes

         - Favorite Sayings / Concepts 

         - Rants

           - I have a  theory ...     (htm)  

           - Human Nature / Principles  (htm)     

           - US Budget Numbers Only  

           - Liberals vs. Conservatives     (htm)

           - Health Care     (htm) (work in progress)

Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party have just gotten Trump to sign legislation to open the government and pay 800,000 government workers for the next 3 weeks.  Many Democrats believe this is a defeat for Trump.

Fact & Opinion:

Is this a defeat for Trump?  (I've given it some thought after watching the Sunday morning political shows.)  I suspect that Trump will just call for an Emergency at the end of 3 weeks and issue an Executive Order to fund the wall.  

Pelosi has absolutely refused to negotiate any kind of deal with the President if it includes funding for any type of wall. In short, after 3 weeks, Trump issues an executive order and he gets his wall. The Democrats get nothing and the Democrats look like they are against just about any type of border security, especially for the next election.  The Democrats could have actually done some good by throwing in an extension of DACA but it looks like they may squander this opportunity.

(a day later)  I've given this situation a little more thought and there may be a good chance that the courts will block Trumps emergency action.  In this case every citizen loses as DACA still isn't passed and no border security gets enhanced.  Oops, the undocumented immigrants win as their kid get a free education, healthcare, food, and subsidized housing and you get to pay for it. 

(fact source: General Media)

The New York Times broke a story that in 2017, the FBI investigated Trump as potentially being a secret agent of Russia.  The investigation has now been turned over to Mueller.

Fact & Opinion:

OMG.  As I'm writing this, I'm watching Chris Mathews on Hard Ball who has pretty much already convicted Trump. He's not really in to due process and facts.  However, I do have a few questions:

     -  If the FBI had evidence that Trump was a Russian agent, what is taking them so long to act. 

     -  Trump has currently placed sanctions on a dozen Russian Oligarchs close to Putin. 

     -  Trump has supplied Ukraine with the necessary military equipment to protect themselves from Russia.

     -  Trump has confronted Russia directly in Syria. 

What Trump hasn't done is:

     -  Sell 20% of US uranium reserves to a Canadian company owned by Russian Oligarchs.

     -  Tell Putin on an open mike that he would have more flexibility after the election.  Oops.  (No investigation.)

     -  Not respond militarily to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

     -  Not provide military help to Ukraine so they could protect themselves. 

I don't understand.  The facts just don't support the Democrats position.  Trump is the most investigated president that I have ever witnessed.  If something isn't absolutely definitive in the results of the Mueller investigation later this year, we will have witnessed the largest Democrat dry hump in history. 

(fact source: General Media)

Steyer believes the 5 Rights represent essential freedoms that should be"

       1) "the right to an equal vote"

       2) "the right to clean air and water"

       3) "the right to learn,"

       4) "the right to a living wage"

       5) "the right to health."

The population of California may have exceeded 40 million sometime last summer growing

240 M per year.

Fact & Opinion:

I read a lot of information about the population of California so I thought I'd put a few numbers together:

       Total births per year:          + 571 M

       Total deaths per year:        - 246 M

       Leave state per year:          - 143 M

            Sub total:                         +   82 M

     Unspecified immigration:      158 M

(fact source: General Media)

4

"I just can't live in New York anymore. Everything I hated about L.A. I'm beginning to crave.  L.A. is a place where you live behind a gate, you get in a car, your interaction with the public is minimal ..."  Alec Baldwin.

Fact & Opinion:

The above is a direct quote from Alec Baldwin.  If you ever questioned whether the "liberal elite" even existed, this is your evidence.  It is a state of mind so really hard to pin down.  So here is a guy that mocks Trump on SNL and really, deep down, doesn't want anything to do with the public.  In the meantime, Trump is mixing with the public on a daily basis at his rallies. It is disconcerting that Baldwin has an oversized influence on the politics influencing regular people and their lives and really wants nothing to do with them.  Ironic.  In my mind, this is the definition of liberal elite.

(fact source: O.C. Register)

4

5 Harsh realities of Being a Paid Protester.  (Google it.)

Fact & Opinion:

I was always suspicious of protesters, but the recent nomination process of Judge Kavanaugh gave me the motivation to do a little research.  I was kind of stunned when I heard a paid protester on a news show explain how she has a full time protester for a social justice organization.  She did not get into who funded the organization.  What concerns me is that if you are a legitimate protester exercising your constitution rights, you don't really know if the protester next to you shares your ideals and concerns or is a paid protester from an organization with an agenda that may be different than your own. 

To me, this just doesn't pass the sniff test.  Now, when I look at a group of protesters in the street, I don't know who is a legitimate protester and those who are being paid to advance some unknown social agenda.  This just seems to be an affront to real Democracy and really cheapens the authenticity of real protests.  It's like being paid to vote which I believe subverts democracy.  

(fact source: Google Search and Interview with Paid Protester on News Show)

4

Your word against ours: How the FBI's 'No Electronic Recording" Policy Rigs the Game ... and Destroys its credibility.  (podcast)

Fact & Opinion:

Unbelievable.  I had to look it up when I heard this.  How does FBI testimony stand up in any court of law when there is no audio or video evidence, just the interviewer's notes, especially when it has recently been discovered that many FBI persons are potentially biased.   How can they convict anyone?

(fact source: Heard on Radio and confirmed after numerous Google searches

4

People sure like to beat up on Tesla.

Fact & Opinion:

The chart below kind of shows a different view.

(fact source: Borrowed from Forbes)

4

It seems that a majority of American citizens and politicians believe that Trump's meeting with Putin

in Helsinki was a "disaster". 

Fact & Opinion:

I really don't know if the meeting was a disaster or not and I don't even know what it was discussed, but if it was about Crimea, I looked up a few facts to ponder:

"According to the census result the population of the Crimean Federal District is 2.2844 million people. The ethnic composition is as follows: Russians: 1.49 million (65.3%), Ukrainians: 0.35 million (15.1%), Crimean Tatars: 0.28 million (12.0%)."

My own recollection is that Crimea was handed over to Ukraine in the 1980's with the breakup of the Soviet Union, but remained Russia's only naval base with access to the Mediterranean.  Ironically, it was, and still is, a primary vacation destination for Russians.  Having listened to Crimean and Southern Ukrainians discuss Crimea lately, the only real issue seems to be with Americans and Europeans (who have been quite successful whipping up discontent among Americans) and then doing their own major trade deals with Russia.

(fact source: Google)

  Check out the "legal" migrant (net) column. 

Do the politicians really understand what "Medicare for all" actually means?

Fact & Opinion:

I personally started collecting Medicare a couple years ago at age 65.  What's funny is that many politicians want Medicare for everyone.  I don't know if they understand that myself and my employer have sunk hundreds of thousands dollars into Medicare over  the last 42 years for me, personally.  Since I still work, my employer and I are still funding Medicare in addition to the $800+ dollars per month that I pay personally for my wife and myself to cover the Part B penalty for working, plus Supplemental & Prescription insurance.  This can be more expensive than a individual policy.     

If the politicians REALLY mean "Medicare for All", it's fantastic that everyone would have to pay so much to get into Medicare and then pay the high cost of being on Medicare while employed.  There would be more money in Medicare than the government would know what to do with. 

Oh, wait a minute, those politicians just want everyone to receive the benefits of Medicare without paying into it before and during the time they receive Medicare benefits. I don't think they understand that this isn't Medicare.  It's MEDICAID.  What's the difference?  The choice of doctors, hospitals, and medical care is much more comprehensive under Medicare.  That's why it's much more expensive for participants.  If everyone were allowed on Medicare, it would simply go bankrupt and all those workers that paid into the program for all their working life would be left without medical care of any kind.  Thanks Bernie. 

(fact source: Political advertising on TV)

With the upcoming mid-term elections, I'm getting barraged with ads on TV about greedy corporations.

Fact & Opinion:

First,  corporations aren't greedy, people are greedy.  Yes, there are CEO's of corporations who seem to bleed their company financially but this is less often the case. It's mostly hedge funds that "extract value" from weak corporations.  I divide CEOs in to two types, those that created the company and are responsible for its success, and those that seem to be in the right place at the right time, and then become CEO though no fault of their own.  This group seems to undeservedly benefit greatly from the success of their predecessor. 

Second, I would like to remind democrat politicians, that non- profits don't pay income taxes so they are not offering any financial support for state services, pensions, or public assistance.  Hartford Connecticut is the latest example of where half the businesses in the city were non- profits and didn't pay taxes.  No wonder the city went bankrupt.  Universities, churches, museums, social services, and non profits are necessary but don't contribute financially to the well being of a city or community.  Oh, don't think that the management of non-profit organizations don't pay themselves some very healthy bonuses.  That would be very naive.

Finally, it's no revelation that a successful, first-world economy relies on the success of its private sector which is the primary "input" for supporting the public sector.  The problem is that the U.S. may getting very close to the tipping point where the demands of the public sector out-strip the financial contribution of the private sector. 

(fact source: General Media)

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff is a book which details the behavior of U.S. President Donald Trump and staff of his 2016 presidential campaign and White House.  (Wikipedia) 

Fact & Opinion:

In short, the book (what I've heard about it) is as close to a "hit piece" as there is.  Wolff fails to appreciate that 60 million American voted for him.  Rex Tillerson may have or have not called Trump a "moron" but that pretty much sums up my feelings about Trump.

However, there is one critically important thing that no one is saying, that regardless of his style, Trump is usually on the right side of most major issues.  It's uncanny.  For example, Trump has been on the right side of:

     Cheer-leading the business community to create jobs.

     Reducing bureaucratic and duplicitous regulations that stifle business unnecessarily.

     Getting people off welfare and pre-retirement disability and into the job force.

     Encouraging energy development in the U.S. without taking sides,  That is what capitalism is for.

     Immigration and efforts to reduce the importation of drugs and lower wage unskilled labor.

     Pushing more policy decisions to the state level.

     Attacking ISIS without hesitation and showing strong leadership in the Middle East.

Wolf is very misleading, especially about his motivations.  He won't admit that he is political, but I do believe his main intent is to sell books at the expense of the President.  Yes, it is exploitation and very ugly.  Trump being impeached would be icing on the cake for which I believe Wolff would take full credit.

In contrast, Obama was very intellectual, confident, compassionate, and presidential.  What could go wrong?  For his first term, Obama wielded a steady hand and stabilized the U.S. economy from a Republican induced financial crises.  Unfortunately, this strategy did not work in his 2nd term which needed a leader, not an academic community organizer.  It needed someone who had the best interests of the American worker in mind who had suffered greatly during the recession.  It seems most Democrats still don't get this.

This is where this discussion gets complicated.  90% of press coverage is negative on Trump regardless of his actions whether they are good or bad.  They are basing their criticism on what he says, not what he does.  In fact, the hysteria created by MSNBC, Colbert, and others is very hard to digest.  In fact, it makes many Americans run the other way.  Personally, I didn't vote for Trump, but based on his current successes and the idiotic blow back from the progressive left, I may have to vote for him in 2020.

(fact source: General media)

The CBO has scored the new Trump/GOP tax cut plan as adding $1.4 trillion over 10 years to the national debt on a static basis.    

Fact & Opinion:

The national debt is likely to stand at $20.1 trillion at the end of 2017. Trump has been in office for 1 year and is just now getting his economic plan together which will begin to go into affect starting in 2018.  Since it wont be fully in effect till 2019, that's when I'll start attributing any change in national debt to the current administration.  Isn't this fun. 

Just a little history using the 2 years data offset that I just described above:  (See debt calculations.)

     Obama:     National debt increased $ 7.5 trillion or 55.1%.

     Bush:        National debt increased $ 7.4 trillion or 119.4%.

     Clinton:     National debt increased $ 1.5 trillion or 31.9%.

     H. W.        National debt increased $ 1.5 trillion or 30.6%.

     Reagan     National debt increased $ 2.1 trillion or 190.9%.

Just an observation, both Reagan and Bush cut taxes during a healthy and growing economy and both wracked up record deficits.

(fact source: U.S. Dept. of Treasury)

In 2015, almost 60% of taxpayers making between $200,000 and $500,000 per year paid the AMT.    

Fact & Opinion:

Right now, all of the discussion about the GOP tax cut is about the "brackets".  What is left out is the AMT.  The tax brackets mean nothing to 60% of Americans in the category above.  I really would like to calculate my taxes under the tax cut plan but I'll have to wait till more information is available on the AMT.  I'm guessing that there will be a lot of pissed off working professionals if the AMT isn't revised favorably.  I hope I'm wrong.

(fact source: Table 1.4, Statistics of Income, IRS)

John Harwood interviewed Gary Cohn about the latest House and Senate versions of the tax reform legislation.  Mr. Harwood calculated that individuals would benefit by $200 billion and corporations by $1 trillion over the next 10 years.  There are currently over 4 times more tax cuts for corporations than for individuals. 

Fact & Opinion:

Have you noticed in the latest tax cut negotiations that individuals lose many of their deductions, yet corporations lose very few loopholes and receive the lion's share of the tax rate reduction.  I don't know about you, but when I hear the term "tax reform", I'm thinking about companies that don't pay their proper share of corporate income taxes in the U.S. and wealthy individuals that pay almost no personal income tax, not taking deductions away from individuals.  Why aren't they part of tax reform!

The average blue collar worker will save $1,182  per year at first.  What Cohn didn't say was that the new CPI indexing will cause that benefit to almost go away entirely in the next 10 years.  However, the benefits to corporations will not.  It makes me not want to trust any republican. 

While the increase in deficit is estimated at $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, some analysis calculate it at over $4 trillion by 2040.  How do you solve that problem?  Cohn admitted that the resulting deficit will make it easier to reform (go after) Medicare and Social Security. Separately, Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, was enthusiastic about future Social Security and Medicare entitlement reform. (Note: Social Security is not an entitlement since every worker pays for it every month in their paycheck.)   This is the first time in my life that I've actually thought that the future of Social Security may be in jeopardy.  Thank you Republicans.  (facetious comment)

The Republican strategy has been to grow the economy through "trickle-down" economics to help middle class workers.  We've already tried this under President Reagan and President Bush.  All it did was massively increase the federal deficit and trash the economy after a few years of growth.  Don't Republicans ever learn!

As presented, both the House plan and the Senate plan seem to be contradictory towards each other and reconciliation will be complicated. (Hopefully that's a good thing.)  No offense, but it looks like the House and the Senate are just throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.  It's so convoluted.  There doesn't seem to be any coherent strategy.

This may become the most vile and hostile piece of legislation to ever come out of the U.S. Congress. Full disclosure, I'm a professional middle class worker in a blue state and will lose a lot of deductions.  I do have a dog in this fight.  John Harwood is my hero for asking the proper questions and bringing this issue to light.

(fact source: NBR John Harwood interview of Gary Cohn - National Economic Council Director)

Updates:   (11/19/17)
 

1) The Joint Committee on Taxation, after reviewing the original GOP Senate Tax Plan, has calculated that the tax cut for the average household, earning between $50,000 and $75,000 per year, will be $688.  The average millionaire will receive a tax cut of $58,000. 

2)  New York Times: "... President Trump could cut his tax bills by more than $1.1 billion ...".

3) Jackie Speier on Face the Nation: "... And I think for all of those members who basically have handed their constituents a $10,000 tax increase, that's what we're talking about ..."

4) The U.S. worker tax burden is already quite competitive compared to countries in the OECD. 

Trump and the Republicans have floated a tax rate cut plan that reduces the corporate tax rate on American corporations but eliminates individual deductions for state income taxes and property taxes.  

Fact & Opinion:

The plan has not been finalized yet but will have to be revenue neutral in order to pass with only a majority vote in the House and Senate.  Basically, someone will have to give up something to pay for the corporate tax cuts and I don't believe it will be the top 0.1%.   

In addition to the state income tax and property tax deductions, there is a whole plethora of other deductions that you could lose.  See Tax Reform Economics (pdf). 

There are over 15 separate categories, most of which would wreck your year.  If a whole category isn't eliminated, limits may be placed on it like a maximum deduction for employee paid health care.  Notice that existing loopholes like carried interest, and numerous corporate tax avoidance strategies, developed by teams of specialized lawyers, aren't affected. 

I know there is an overwhelming number of political issues sucking the oxygen out of the room, but this one really matters.  I don't trust either the Republicans or the Democrats to do the right thing and this is really going to hurt. Do your own research and make your opinion known to your elected representative. 

(fact source: General Media & Forbes)

Facebook announced Wednesday that a Russian propaganda organization used the social media platform to purchase $100,000 of political advertising.

Fact & Opinion:

I love it.  "Facebook found 470 inauthentic accounts associated with approximately 3,000 political ads from June 2015 to May 2017. The ad purchases and accounts are affiliated with a Russian “troll farm,” dubbed the Internet Research Agency, which spreads pro-Russian propaganda and false information across the World Wide Web". 

Zuckerberg is one of Trump's most outspoken critics and it turns out that FACEBOOK may have actually helped turn the election for Trump.  It turns out that a better case could be made for Zuckerberg colluding with the Russians than Trump.  I'm still waiting (and waiting) for the evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians. 

A much bigger and more important issue that doesn't get much press attention is the use of FACEBOOK by ISIS, the Taliban, and other radical groups to promote their own ideologies which ends up in the deaths of many Americans!

Update:

This is now old news and Zuckerberg has agreed to hand over everything it has on the issue.  I just like the irony of the most successful business leaders of our country and his self-righteous attitude about half the population of the U.S. 

(fact source: PBS)

It doesn't look like that there will be any resolution to the healthcare "insurance" crises anytime soon, especially "repeal and replace" as promised by Republicans to their voters in the last election. 

Fact & Opinion:  

It is kind of embarrassing that the Republicans, after bitching for 6 years, didn't even have a replacement plan ready.  Now, the House can't agree with the Senate. Elected Republican officials can't agree with their constituencies.  No one can agree with Trump. Even the Democrats are fighting between themselves.  No one agrees with the CBO.   In fact, no one can even agree on any facts.  It doesn't get any better than this.

Now comes the hard part.  Is healthcare a "right" to be administered by the federal government?  Not literally according to the Constitution. Then the question becomes can a wealthy, successful capitalistic society find a way to provide basic health care for everyone.  In my opinion, the answer is yes.  Notice that I said "basic". 

The pursuit of extraordinary cancer cures and and other extremely sophisticated medical procedures are commendable but seem to be bringing our health care system to its financial knees. No one will have decent health care if this happens.  Unfortunately, it's going to be tough  to resolve this problem and I don't think we have anyone in Washington DC that can figure this out.  Basic healthcare, especially for communicable diseases and emergencies, should be a right for the protection of all Americans but extraordinary care should not.  I have no clue where to draw the the line but it is going to be drawn. 

(fact source: General News)

President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate change.    

Fact & Opinion:  

Ugh.  This will suck all the oxygen out of the room (politically).  Maybe that is what Trump wanted in order to divert attention from other issues.  In reality, this was not unexpected as this is what he promised his base during the presidential election.  Remember, neither the Democrats of the establishment Republicans wanted him for President.  It was his base that put him in office.  

The Paris Accord was a non-binding agreement which allowed the U.S. to take a leadership position on world opinion on global warming (if the U.S. was smart about it). While it prescribed CO2 reductions for nations of the world, in reality, it was about the money.  I wish Trump would have just said that.  Maybe he did. The U.S. has reduced its CO2 emissions 18% since 2002 while China and India don't have to start reducing theirs till 2030.

Trump's major objection was that the agreement requires the U.S. to pay the majority share of an annual $100 billion climate fund which allocates money to poorer nations including China to help them meet their CO2 reduction goals. Trump believed that would be unfair to the American worker/taxpayer who would actually be footing the bill.  He is not all wrong about that.  

As a conservative, I have already installed solar panels, LED lighting, drive a high mileage automobile, and planted a couple dozen trees.  My guess is that most of the climate zealots have not done that so why do I also have to pay for them.   Furthermore, CO2 is heavier than air and the CO2 produced on the ground is utilized by trees and shrubs to produce oxygen (and acidize the ocean), and the CO2 emitted from private jets at 30,000 feet from proponents of climate change flying to climate conferences, remains in the atmosphere and actually does cause global warming. It seems that hypocrisy is running rampant these days.

Succinctly, reducing all pollution is a fantastic idea.  The good news is that as you reduce criteria air pollutants (H2S, NOX, SOX), CO2 pollution is also reduced, and after Germany, the U.S. is a leader in this area.  It's just good business to reduce air pollution and companies and states will be financially motivated to continue to do so.  All Trump did was remove the "command and control" mandate. 

Update: Did Trump really withdraw the U.S. from the  Paris Climate Accord?  He could have reneged on the agreement and gotten the U.S. out now, but he didn't.  He announced that the U.S. was withdrawing under the termination process written in the agreement.  That process takes at least 4 years before even beginning.  Perhaps Trump just wanted a little time for some renegotiation.  Some European countries have refused to consider renegotiation but at least they have 4 years to think about it.  The general news media doesn't quite get it right again. 

(fact source: General News)

After 50 advertisers withdrew and Fox News paid out over $13 million in settlements, Bill O'Reilly was fired from the O'Reilly Factor.   

Fact & Opinion:  

I knew O'Reilly could be a pompous A-xxxx and there is video of him in the studio blowing his cool but it is the sexual harassment allegations that got him fired.  My problem is that they are only allegations but there certainly are a lot of them.  I'm sure many of the people that do not like O'Reilly would have preferred to get rid of Trump, but O'Reilly was the next best thing.   If O'Reilly actually did overtly sexually harassment these women, then he should have been fired long ago, but so far, even from the accusations, I have not seen anything that rose to that level. (Punishment yes, firing no.)  I wish some of these cases would go to trial so we can find out what really happened and update my opinion with some facts.

Obviously, it took a well organized effort to convince the advertisers to withdraw their support of the O'Reilly Factor. I have no facts on who was behind the effort, if anyone.  For the advertisers, this was a business decision.  I do have doubts that the people behind the effort ever watched the program. I work for a company in an industry that is constantly getting sued because people don't like our product (gasoline).  We are a small company and we settle just about every case because it costs us more to fight in court than to just settle.  We are not guilty of anything but we still get sued.  I wonder if a little of this happened to the Fox network. 

I was a little slow in responding to this event until I realized that Bill was one of the few moderate forces on the Fox network and I no longer have the opportunity to watch his show. The people who hated O'Reilly, although they never watched him, have now removed my ability and opportunity to watch his show.  Congratulations, you won.  Somehow, in the long run, I feel the people of America lost. 

I have a hard time watching many shows on Fox because of their right wing ideology, e.g. Hannity, but the firing of O'Reilly has left the viewing public with a potentially even more right wing network.

(fact source: General News)

Social media exposed a passenger (who refused to exit an United Airlines flight) being dragged down the center isle after refusing to give up his seat when asked by UAL employees. Four passengers were randomly selected and paid $800 to take a later flight.  One doctor refused since he had appointments he needed to make the following morning.   

Fact & Opinion:  

Huh.  This is intriguing on many different levels and brings up a bunch of legal issues:

  1) How did he get on the plane in the first place.  UAL should have never allowed passengers to get on the plane if they

        didn't have enough space to begin with.  This is just bad policy and procedure. 

  2) Actually the flight was not over-booked, UIAL just needed seats to accommodate other UAL employees. Oops.

        Over-booking rules may not apply.  This is just plain old assault.

  3) UAL only offered $800 when they could have legally offered $1,350.  Again, questionable UAL policy.

  4) The security personnel weren't really authorized police but employees from a private security firm.  Do I hear Kidnap?

  5) UAL ran for cover under over-booking regulations even though UAL helped write (or at least lobbied) the regulations.

  6) The fine print of the UAL ticket removes many legal rights from the customer.  I have never believed this to be fair

         and the faster fine print like this gets to the Supreme Court, the better. 

The following day, the CEO of UAL libeled the customer by bringing up his character and past history which had nothing to do with the specific situation of being dragged down the center aisle of the jet.  KaChing !!!!! 

(fact source: General News)

The Sunday morning political shows spent more time covering the Russians spreading fake news than any other issue.  

Fact & Opinion:  

Congratulations traditional media.  You just wasted another Sunday morning NOT talking about issues that actually

affect American citizens.  Nice dodge.  Also, you are so concerned that the Russians are trying to undermine

our democracy.  I didn't realize our democracy was so weak.  You don't have much confidence in America, do you? 

(fact source: Sunday morning political shows)

During the 2016 Presidential Election, approximately 50% of news could have been "fake" news.  60 Minutes even interviewed an attorney who was financially successful posting news that he believed to be true but was not based on any facts or truths.  People just ate it up. 

Fact & Opinion:  

I don't understand, but apparently there still is a large demand for fake news.  My theory is that when I watch traditional news (CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX), there are so many incorrect facts, missing facts, and biased facts that it is not a large leap from this traditional phony news to fake news.  It is actually the fault of traditional media that this phenomena is occurring.  Traditional media has become increasingly liberal in the last decade, probably because of Bush, to the point that a lot of what they report simply isn't credible anymore.  Hence, the wide acceptance of fake news. 

(fact source: CBS 60 Minutes)

"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if you kick us all out, you’ll have nothing to watch except for football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts," 

Fact & Opinion:  

This quote just makes me angry.  It looks like I really am a "deplorable" and, all of a sudden, proud of it. 

I sense the Meryl Streep's hierocracy as Trump is married to a lady from Slovenia and all people of all races, religious, and sexual preferences are welcome at his hotels.  He also employs thousands of people from all walks of life.  Does Meryl do that or does she just talk about.  I think I just read that 93% of all directors in Hollywood are male. 

A little reality, that night the NFL playoff game garnered 2.5 times more viewers than the Golden Globes.

(fact source: Golden Globes Awards)

Feinstein announced that she believes that the election results would have been different if the DNC had not been hacked by the Russians.

Fact & Opinion:  

 - Trump won 3,084 counties, Clinton won 57. News flash, the US consists of more than just California and New York.

 - Comey and the prospect of a 3rd "Obama term" did more damage to Hillary than Putin could have done.

 - The Clintons left the White House broke and are now worth $111 million.  And democrats are worried about Trump!

 - The Clinton Foundation received $144 million in 2013 and $287 million in 2016 while Hillary ran for president.  Hmmm.

 - So far, none of the emails appear to have been modified.  (The Clinton Foundation was a "profit center" for many). 

 - I am stunned that anyone would think that Russia wasn't trying to not hack into the elections.

 - If my password was "Password", to gain access to the database at the company I work for, I would have been fired.

 - Hillary didn't get a lot of votes from disappointed Sanders fans who just didn't show up on election day.   

        (How ironic, Hillary may have lost the election because of another Democrat.)

In short, I held my nose and voted for Hillary (I live in a blue state).  Based on the recent Democrat reaction, if the election were held again today, I would definitely vote for Trump without any reservation. 

(fact source: Meet the Press)

Marie Antoinette enjoyed an over-the-top lavish life style at the expense of the French people prior to the French Revolution in 1792.  For some reason, Meryl Streep reminded me of Marie Antoinette in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes Awards.

Fact & Opinion:  

I was stunned by all the glitz, glamour, gold, champagne, and caviar on display at the Golden Globes Awards and the Hollywood A-lists that were in attendance. The decadence was really disturbing in light of what the majority of Americans are still struggling economically.  Her acceptance speech thoroughly denigrated Americans who work, pay their taxes, obey the laws, and are the foundation of this country. (Ironically, some of these people pay to see her movies and are responsible for her success and wealth.)  Both Marie and Meryl had no clue as to the extent of their hypocrisy.

(fact source: General Media)

17 U.S. Intelligence Agencies are in consensus that Russia hacked the DNC with the intent of affecting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Fact & Opinion:

Really? Since when is consensus proof of anything?  The U.S. is still licking its wounds from a consensus that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.  5,000 soldiers dead. 15,000 crippled for life.  750,000 other dead in the M.E. $3 trillion drained from the U.S. Treasury.  I don't remember hearing an apology from the Intelligence Agencies on that fiasco.   

The Russians trying to hack the US? I thought just about every country in the world was trying to hack the U.S. government and American companies.  I thought the Chinese recently hacked all the personnel records of the federal government.  Haven't they been hacking American companies for decades. Who knew! 

"Password"?  That was Podesta's password that led to the hack of the DNC.  Why does Podesta still have a job! 

McCain and other Republicans think that the act of hacking rises to the level of war.  What's his end game, dropping bombs on Russia. This guy is truly dangerous. By his logic, should Israel and Germany declare war on the U.S. after we hacked them and tried to affect their elections. 

Update: 01/06/17.  Clapper (head of US intelligence) has just announced that Russia was behind the hacking. Clapper has presented no proof to the American public. Julian  Assange (Wikileaks) says it wasn't. The intelligence community unanimously does not believe Assange yet it was Clapper last year who proclaimed that the CIA was not data-mining the American people, yet it turned out that he was.  Let's also not forget about the Benghazi fiasco where the American people were told that the attack was because of a video.  Who am I supposed to believe, an alleged traitor or an American official with a track record of not telling the truth?

The good news is that it turned out that none of Hillary's email were proven to be doctored or manipulated.  What Wikipedia published were her genuine emails.  Trump was absolutely correct when he tweeted that the U.S. Intelligence agencies need a change of leadership. 

(fact source: General Media)

The DNC was deliberately hacked by Russia to help Trump win the U.S. election.

Fact & OPINION:

Ugh.  I don't know about Russia but I do know that James Comey, Director of the FBI, threw Hillary under the bus right before the election be stating that the FBI may have found thousands more emails on Hillary's email server.  Nice.  Who needs enemies when you have friends like that. 

Yes, the RNC servers were not hacked.  Either the Russians didn't target the RNC or maybe the RNC just simply had better administration and electronic of their servers.  Remember, who was violating federal government email policy?  Hasn't Obama had 7 years to protect the "homeland" from hacking and viruses generated outside the U.S.  Isn't that what Homeland Security is supposed to be doing! 

In short, the election was Hillary's to lose.  Hillary had many opportunities to win but chose to focus her campaign on the "Coasts" instead the rest of the country. Wisconsin was a blue state that guaranteed Hillary 10 delegates but she never even campaigned in the state, and as a result, lost the state to Trump.  Even a recount ended up giving Trump 160 more votes. 

The fact that President Obama refused to admit that there was Islamic Terrorism in the world, recognize that tons of Heroin was flowing in from our southern border, and recognize that manufacturing jobs were rapidly moving to Mexico from the Mid-West, was also part of the problem.  In retrospect, it seems pretty simple. 

(fact source: Meet the Press and General Media)

Castro is deceased and we first learned about him while watching our 12" B&W TVs over 50 years ago.

Fact & OPINION:

This is too good to pass up.  In Cuba, the citizens are still getting their government news, if at all, on 12" B&W TVs while Americans get theirs on 65", UHD, 4K, backlit LCD TV's. Even poor Americans are watching their own 32" LCD TVs.  Isn't this a metaphor on the economic difference between Communism and Capitalism.  Castro literally took a tropical paradise and turned it into one of the poorest, per capita, countries in the world.  (There were some issues with the Mafia but that could have been resolved with police action, not a dictatorship.)

Castro was successful at equalizing all Cuban citizens, unfortunately to the lowest common denominator.  Average wage?  $20 per month.  Castro's own net worth? $900 million.  (But he was for the people!)

(fact source: Meet the Press and General Media)

Democrat pundits are concerned that Trump will use the Presidency to increase his own wealth.

Fact & OPINION:

On first thought, this is not an unreasonable opinion.  However, I sense a degree of hypocrisy on the part of the pundits promoting this idea. Bill and Hillary Clinton left the White House with little wealth and managed to accumulate $111 million in wealth since then.  Nice. They also created the Clinton Foundation which receives substantial contributions annually  from financial institutions and foreign governments. (In 2012- $51.4 million, 2013 - $144.3, 2015 - $291) Wow. The Clintons don't receive a salary from the Foundation but its seems that the foundation pays a lot of someone's expenses.

I do fear that Trump will use his position to reduce his income tax to an extent that it actually jeopardizes the financial integrity of the U.S. economy just like what happened during the last Bush administration.  Famous quote, it's Déjà vu all over again.     

(fact source: Meet the Press and General Media)

On a static basis, Trump's tax reduction plan will reduce income taxes by $5.9 trillion (down from $10 trillion).

Fact & OPINION:

Please note that this does not include a reduction in corporate taxes, capital gains, an increase in deductions, and the privatization of hundreds of billions of infrastructure assets already paid for by the citizenry. 

How does this affect old white men?  Old white men get the lion's share of Social Security payouts and where do you think the money to try to balance the budget is going to come from!  You got it.  Social Security provides a "huge" cash flow to the federal government and Congress will be forced to dip into it to shore up the US balance sheet.  Hello "needs testing".  And who needs it the least, old white men.  "Hasta la vista, baby."

(fact source: General Media)

Had Obama not acted so casual or indifferent about very important issues affecting the middle class,

the Republican candidate might have been a different person. 

Fact & OPINION:

It's not the facts or principles, but the feeling that Obama is just not capable of acting in the average working citizen's best interests:

     Stop being professorial and explaining issues and start acting like a leader, make decisions, and take action. 

     Yes, you can call the bad guys in the Middle East "Islamist Terrorists".

     I live in an area where 60% of the people don't speak English.  This includes Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders,

           and multitudes of other immigrants.  It's hard to believe that anything is being done about immigration, legal or not. 

     Explain to me why my health insurance cost has more than doubled in the last 8 years under the Affordable Care Act.

     I know your predecessor was responsible for destabilizing the Middle East but can't you act more military-like. 

(fact source: General discussion)

Mike Pence and Tim Kaine debated each other in the VP debate.

Fact & OPINION:

I may have to give Senator Pence the edge in style in the VP debate.  He certainly had the larger challenge. 

However, there are certain things about Pence that scare the hell out of me: 

     Pence is a supporter of the Tea Party movement that shut down the US Government a few years ago.

     Pence wants to privatize Social Security.

     Pence wants to voucherize Medicare. 

     Pence does not believe in evolution. 

     Pence held up HIV Research Legislation in order to add a provision to promote "conversion" therapy.

     Pence defends Trump when he said we're going to punish women for having abortions.

     Pence challenged Putin (that guy's a bully) in the VP debate which is never a smart thing to do. 

I realize that many of the points made above are exactly what many Republicans are looking for in a candidate. 

(fact source: General media)

Many polls now have Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton.  

Fact & OPINION:

I know there are a lot of people who literally hate Hillary Clinton but I can't believe that they would vote for a guy that has:

     Gone bankrupt 4 times (great businessman),

     Has thousands of lawsuits against him,

     Hasn't paid even more thousands of workers,

     Has 5 deferments (supports the military),

     Has never given a shit about the little guy (and won't if elected president),

     Licenses his name to developers to sell overpriced condos to unwitting individuals,  (who lose all their money)

     Trump University,

     Has had 3 marriages (for you evangelicals),

     Pays no income tax (he's worth billions), and

     Will more than likely use the office of the presidency to further enhance his own wealth. (as will Hillary)

This guy is really good. If you can vote for a person with this pedigree, you are a better person than I am.  

(fact source: General media)

60 Minutes recently aired an episode discussing the US government trying to gradually take away our gun rights.  They also discussed the potential issue with smart guns and how allowing them would eventually take away the right to own a gun without "smart" technology.

Fact & OPINION:

I do own a 410 over/under which I keep in storage and use when I go hunting.  I do not keep a gun at home for fear of someone in our family accidentally shooting themselves or someone else.  It happens about 12,000 times per year in the US. I began to get upset when I realized that while the NRA and ardent gun owners are protecting their own rights, they have no problem making sure that I don't have the right to own a smart gun.  This actually pisses me off.

(fact source: CBS -  June  2016)

"How many mistakes can we make?"

   'It was a mistake to invade Iraq.'

   'It was a mistake to abandon Iraq.'

   'It is a mistake to allow so many, improperly vetted Middle Eastern males into the US.'

   'It is a mistake to allow terrorist groups to use social media (or at least not allow the FBI to monitor it).'

   'It is a mistake to underestimate the power of Shania and the separation of church and state.'

   'It is a mistake to allow people on the "no fly list" to legally purchase guns in the US.'

Fact & OPINION:

Enough said.

(fact source: KFI Radio -  June  2016)

In case you missed it, the presidential nomination process hasn't been a cakewalk for the establishment in either party. I don't have time to bore you with the details but have an observation on how I might vote.

Fact & OPINION:

"I would rather vote for a good person with whom I disagree than a bad person with whom I agree." (In the primary.)  What is a bad person?  One definition, for this purpose, is a person who is deceptive and willingly lies or leaves out the truth for his own personal gain.  Chances are that the bad person, once elected, will change their mind anyway and you will no longer be in agreement. I want your vote so I can take it away.  It happens.

(fact source: General Media -  April  2016)

Fact: 

Social Security COLA is tied to the Consumer Price Index and SS recipients will receive no increase in 2016.

OPINION:

Really? I know the price of gasoline and the stock market have gone down but that's the only thing I can think of.  My healthcare premium, deductible, and cost of service went up at least 8% in the past year.  My property taxes were up 2%, insurance on my house and vehicles 3%, the general real estate market up 11%, and food at least 10%.

(fact source: General Media -  February,  2016)

Fact: 

" ... total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."

OPINION:

Whoa, Trump is being denounced by both the Democrats and Republicans. Once you get past all the miss-quotes, we can try to understand what he was really saying or at least what I think he was clumsily trying to say. 

  - If you don't read the entire quote, it appears that Trump doesn't want any Muslims entering the US... incomprehensible.

  - If you read the entire quote, Trump wants to limit Muslims entering the country until we improve our vetting process.

A little background:

  The Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 permanently changed the requirements for persons seeking legal status in the US.  Before it's passing, immigrants were vetted on their background and potential contribution to American society.  After the passing, immigrants were vetted on their family connections in the US and any negative documented records.  Vetting emphasis was changed from proving your worth to lack of a documented negative record.  Since many immigrants from 3rd world countries have few records, the US has simply been unable to vet most of the immigrants now arriving in the US and, as a result, has allowed them to immigrate.  Our representatives really don't know what is going on. 

I don't know the true motivation of Trump's supporters, but I, myself, feel that the government, especially after some of Obama's speeches on the subject, really doesn't have my, or any other American's, best interest at heart.  This is not a good thing but it is only a gut feel.

NEWS FLASH:  President Carter banned all Iranians from coming to the US during the hostage crises. 

(fact source: General Media -  December 08,  2015)

Fact: 

An additional hearing was completed with Hillary Clinton testifying for 11 hours.  The goal was to figure out what happened when 4 Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.   

OPINION:

I don't remember any hearings on the war in Iraq after 5,000 American soldiers were killed in Active duty, another 2,500 killed not in active combat, 15,000 crippled for life, hundreds of thousands suffering mental disorders for life, and at least another 150,000 Iraqis killed.  Gee, I wander why the average American doesn't consider the Benghazi terror attack very important.  Don't forget another 3,500 people killed in the World Trade Center attack.  How about a little perspective.

(fact source: General Media -  October  2015)

Fact: 

Whenever a politician explains a position for which they have questionable popular or logical support, they invoke the name of the "American people" as the support for their position. 

OPINION:

This is typically done by Republican politicians who often times do not have my support for particular issue.  I have a problem being lumped in with the "American people" as support for their often erroneous position.  It's been happening a lot lately.

(fact source: Meet the Press -  October 22, 2015)

Fact: 

Republican Freedom Caucus. 

OPINION:

I don't know how to respond but here is a group of 30-40 republicans that are willing to shut down the U.S. Government if they don't get their way, 100% of the time.  I don't think any of America's enemies could do a a more efficient job of this.  Ironically, the "Freedom" Caucus is effectively about taking away the American people's freedoms including freedom of choice and availability of contraception. Their "my-way or the highway" positions also take away the freedoms of other elected politicians to operate in the legislative process. (Cronyism should not be part of the legislative process.)  Finally, I have a serious problem with Freedom Caucus members invoking the name of the American People as the base of their support.  I believe they are hallucinating if they think they have the majority support of the American people and will inevitably help lose the next presidential election. 

(fact source: Meet the Press -  October 11, 2015)

Fact: 

Jamie Dimon, CEO of Chase, quoted that shutting down the government is "just bad management". 

OPINION:

Jamie went on to say that the problem with the current US government is that the citizens keep electing politicians who refuse to compromise or negotiate and are willing to shut down the government in order to get their way (my words).  Jamie nailed it.  I now look at the candidates on their ability to manage rather than dictate their will at the expense of the electorate.  I do not elect a politician to inflict their will on the other elected officials but to run the government for the betterment of the citizens.  Of course, my chosen candidates seldom win, e.g. Mitt Romney.  What a missed opportunity!

(fact source: Meet the Press -  September 20, 2015)

Fact: 

The Pottery Barn Rule was created by a news commentator in reference to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.  In short, you break it, you bought it.

OPINION:

Many of the Republican candidates are espousing that in retrospect, given the current evidence, they would not have invaded Iraq.  That's BS!  Hans Blix, U.N. International Nuclear Energy Agency,  inspected all of Iraq in 2002, including temples, and concluded that Saddam had no nuclear weapons of any type.  Period. My conclusion, these Republicans chose to believe the wrong evidence and would most likely do it again today.  Some people just know how to make the correct decisions and these Republicans aren't any of them.

(fact source: General News -  September, 2015)

Fact: 

Hillary Clinton received over $1.5 million from UBS for speaking fees and then discussed some critical issues with UBS on Swiss bank secrecy.

OPINION:

Dummy me.  All along I thought speaking fees were for speaking.  What a great way to donate over $2,700 to a public and/or political figure without violating any election laws.  You and me, our donations are strictly limited.  Big corporations and wealthy individuals, donate mullions and just call it a speaking fee. I now understand that the term speaking fee is just "code" for legal-illegal donations for access to power.   Nice.

(fact source: General News -  August, 2015)

Fact: 

Ted Cruz is relentlessly attacking Senate Leader McConnell for supporting reauthorizing the Export Import Bank.

OPINION:

We already know that US Trade agreements disadvantage American manufacturers.  Now Cruz wants to disable the one institution that helps large American manufacturers compete with other counties who unfairly support their own domestic manufacturing industries.  Nice going Republicans.

(fact source: McLaughlin-  August, 2015)

Fact: 

Rand Paul attaches provision to defund Planned Parenthood to HR22, the Federal Highway Bill.

OPINION:

What the frell do women's rights issues have to do with the Federal Highway Bill.  It is this kind of "extortive" logic that drives me crazy.  I can't, in good conscience, vote for someone with these kinds of thoughts.  It is potentially destructive to American democracy.

(fact source: McLaughlin-  July, 2015)

Fact: 

Are electric automobiles really that bad?

OPINION:

A gasoline fueled vehicle that gets 30 MPG, at $2.00 /gal gasoline costs $.066 per mile to operate.  An electric car that gets 3.7 miles per kWh (Nissan Leaf), at $.10 per KWh electricity, costs $.027 per mile to operate.  $.027 per mile is a lot less than $.066 per mile.   

(fact source: General Media -  June, 2015)

Holy Grail

Issues

Fact: 

A position on any one of the "single" political issues below could cost a candidate the presidency in order of public awareness:

OPINION:

     1) Women's choice.    (Mike Huckabee would not rule out US troops to shut down abortion clinics.)

     2) Troops on the ground in the Middle East.

     3) Marijuana legalization.

     4) Gun Control.

     5) Flat tax - most of the electorate doesn't know and doesn't care.

     6) Common Core.

     7) Healthcare - (Jeb Bush also advised that he would phase out Medicare.)

                           (Ted Cruz was successful shutting down the US Government over Obamacare.)

(fact source: General Media -  June, 2015)

Fact: 

 A recent survey of Wall Street revealed that employees sign employment documents that they will not report wrong doing to law enforcement. 

OPINION:

All the rules in the world will not solve Wall Street's unethical behavior.  However, making the employees themselves personally responsible instead of the company and the stock holder, definitely would.

(fact source: General Media -  May, 2015)

Fact: 

 Jeb:  I would not have invaded Iraq "Knowing what we know now."

OPINION:

That's BS, not only by Jeb, but by Hillary and all the other members of Congress who voted for invading Iraq.  We (I) knew in 2003 that Sadam did not have any weapons of mass destruction.  Our government, and most Americans, just chose to ignore the UN intelligence of Hans Blix (IAEA) because he wasn't an American.  In fact, the CIA tried to totally discredit him even though he personally conducted a thorough on-the-ground search for WMDs in Iraq and found no evidence of any.  (BTW, can you imagine the fate of any of Saddam's generals if they told him that the Iraq military didn't have any WMDs.)

(fact source: General Media -  May, 2015)

Fact: 

Newly insured:                 22.8  million      Lost insurance:                  5.9            Net gain:                       16.9

Employer sponsored:       9.6      Medicaid:                             6.5      Marketplace:                      4.1      Individual:                            1.2      Other:                                   1.5

OPINION:

No comment. 

(fact source: Rand Corporation -  May, 2015)

Fact: 

Fox News has reported that the Clinton Foundation spends less than 10% of its revenue on actual grants.  The Clintons have denied this accusation.  It is merely political.

OPINION:

Look for yourself.  (link)  In fact, it looks more like 5.9% if you divide grants by total received.  Unbelievable, and imagine nearly $30 million spent on salaries and benefits.  I have no clue what $45 million of other expenses are for and neither does the IRS. 

(fact source: Fox News -  May, 2015)

Fact: 

Harry Reid won't apologize for knowingly espousing that Mitt Romney hadn't paid taxes in 10 years, when he knew it was an untrue statement, and  would not apologize because Romney lost the presidential election.  

OPINION:

Wow, Harry Reid, democratic leader of the Senate, has absolutely no remorse on his knowingly untrue statement.  While I bailed as a member of the Republican party over 10 years ago because of the radical right wing, at least the "tea-party" has principles. Harry Reid has neither principles nor ethics. I am stunned by the lack of blow-back from other members of the Democratic party.  I don't think that it is unreasonable to think that a particular leader of a group represents the mind-set of their followers.    What am I supposed to think about the rest of the Democrats that are willing to throw away ethics and principles for the sake of winning.  I know its not fare to many honest and ethical Democrats, but I have growing distrust of all Democrats and their real motivations based on the current event. 

(fact source: General Media -  March, 2015)

Fact: 

Employees share of medical expenses including premiums and deductibles in 2013 stood at 9.6%.  This is up from 5.3% in 2003.  

OPINION:

This amounts to 4.3% of employees income that can no longer be used for discretionary purchases.  There is no doubt that employers have taken the opportunity of the recession to slide additional financial responsibilities to its employees but I suspect the majority of the cost is based on increased premiums by health insurers as a result of Obamacare. This is the first data that I have seen on the affects of an expanded health bureaucracy.  (BTW, my daughter just got back from a visit to the local Urgent Care, paid on the way out, and had nothing to do with Obamacare.)    

(fact source: Money Magazine -  March, 2015)

Fact: 

Rudy Juliana claims that Obama doesn't love his county. 

OPINION:

Wow, after some introspection, I remember when I totally opposed invading Iraq in 2003 because it would cause problems in the Middle East that we couldn't even fathom, I guess you could say that I didn't love my country either.  Move forward to the present, it looks like my belief was totally correct and everyone else who supported the invasion was totally wrong.  So there!  What a frelling mess.      

(fact source: General Media -  February, 2015)

Fact: 

Obama refuses to use the term "Islamic Terrorism" because he believes the issue with ISIS is sectarian, not religious. 

OPINION:

I can understand the belief that by using the term Islamic Terrorism, you are legitimizing ISIS as a religious force. However, this assumes that ISIS is a unique and separate ideology.  Unfortunately, this simply isn't true. The Islamic ideology permeates the entire Middle East.  For example, the Mullahs are the real power center in Iran.  The Muslim Brotherhood has been a major source of insecurity in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East for decades.  The Sunni and Shia have been battling each other for centuries (e.g. ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boco Haram, and AQAP.  I'm sure there are other examples but the point is that these are "religious" issues, and if not recognized for what it really is by Obama, there will be no effective strategy to resolve the problem.       

(fact source: General Media -  February, 2015)

Fact: 

Yes, twice in 6 years, that's how many times President Obama has met with Speaker of the House Boehner in the last 6 years.

OPINION:

Maybe that's why the mid term elections ended up being a referendum on President Obama's policies.  What the hell has he been doing. Since the future of the United States has been at risk in the last 10 years, in the 2016 elections, let's elect a president who wants to solve some problems more than he wants to play golf and take vacations.      

(fact source: General Media -  November, 2014)

Fact: 

Republicans just won at least 52 seats in the Senate, 9 more seats in the House, and several more governorships.  Republican pundits claim that the people of the US have given the country a new direction.

OPINION:

Be careful Republicans, very careful.  The real reason the Republicans won is because the Democrats were so disgusted with their current Democrat leadership that they didn't show up to vote.  Depending on how things go over the next 2 years, if they do show up in the 2016 election, the Republicans are doomed.  Republicans please don't do something stupid that could cause a bunch of uninformed  and entitlement seeking voters to vote against you in the next election.    

(fact source: General Media -  November, 2014)

Fact: 

Setting a minimum wage of over $10 per hour is a major source of derision in our electorate and government.   

OPINION:

First, this issue may best be left to the states and some municipalities.  That's my conservative coming out.  Second, this topic generally pits individuals against business. Not good.  In reality, the minimum wage needs to be set at an amount that benefits the state (or country) the most.  Too much and business suffers, leads to layoffs, and the GDP suffers.  Too little and individuals don't have the buying power and must increasing depend on the government social-net and the GDP suffers.  So what should the minimum wage be?  I would start by recommending that we go back to 1990 and add the inflation rate on an annual basis.   

(fact source: General Media -  October, 2014)

Fact: 

Ebola, Benghazi, ISIS, fast-and-furious.   

OPINION:

What do all these words have in common?  Just like popular entertainers that can be readily identified by their first name, each of the above words is an identifier for some botched action that has been made by the current administration.  For people that are politically aware (liberal or conservative), you don't even have to mention anything more than the name and most politically knowledgeable people know what you are talking about.  Now that's politics.

(fact source: General Media -  October, 2014)

Fact: 

President Obama and much of the press believe that Ebola is not really a major problem in the US due to our health care system.   

OPINION:

First a couple facts. The Ebola virus will survive on a flat surface for a couple hours.  Second, the Ebola virus will last in fluid for a couple days.  Think about it!  If someone with the Ebola virus sneezes on you, you will get Ebola.  Why is that not being newscast?  AIDS is rampant around the world but it takes blood to blood contact in order to get it.  That is much more difficult than a "sneeze". 

The really scary part about Ebola, is that you have a 70% chance of dying within a month if someone with the virus sneezes on you.  At least with AIDS, with medication, you have a reasonable chance of leading a productive life.  Now do you understand why Ebola is a much more serious issue than we are being led to believe. 

Finally, wouldn't the US be better off banning passengers with West African passports from entry into the US.  By eliminating Ebola in the US, more effort can be placed on attacking the virus in Africa.  Once an outbreak occurs in the US, the US will focus on the US and efforts in Africa will be greatly reduced.  This is not a good strategy.

(fact source: General Media -  October, 2014)

Fact: 

Most Americans, the media, and the pentagon believe Assad in Syria is the real problem in the Middle East and are determined to remove him from power.   

OPINION:

Yes, Assad is a strong man and has done some very bad things to remain in power.  However, can you name a single Muslim country that isn't ruled by a strong man (dictator, military, or King) that has done a lot of bad things.  Every country with a dictator that the US has helped or allowed to be brought down, e.g. Egypt, Libya, Iraq, has turned into a disaster area.  Any form of democracy simple doesn't work in the Middle East, never has, never will.  Even back in the 1950's, the Muslim brotherhood was trying to enforce it's radical interpretation of the Koran on the people of Egypt until a dictator, and the military, came to power to put things back in order. 

Today, the Muslim Brotherhood is still incubating mostly out of sight and assumes the many different names including Alcaida and ISIL.  They represent an ideology that will never go away.  It's kind of like fighting the war on drugs but even more dangerous.  The US should rethink its position on Assad as he understands how to maintain control over most of a Middle East country although it isn't democratic or very nice.  That's just how it works in the Middle East.  Just ask Russia and Iran who, being neighbors in the Middle East, understand how the Middle East works.  The US definitely does not. 

(fact source: General Media -  September, 2014)

Fact: 

In the last couple weeks, many people are calling for Roger Goodell's resignation due to the Ray Rice spousal abuse issue.  

OPINION:

Regardless of what people think of Roger Goodell, I would like to point out that it was Ray Rice that hit girl friend not Roger Goodell.  These people are more outraged that Roger Goodell didn't resign more than Ray Rice abused his then girlfriend.  Second, isn't this a police issue.  Since when is Roger Goodell a member of law enforcement.  I don't think he or even the Raven's management has the legal authority to arrest anybody.  Third, if an employee of a company is suspected of abuse, does his employer have any legal authority to fire the employee or just report it to law enforcement.  Why would it be any different for the Raven's management.  Finally, NFL management has the responsibility to run the NFL as the management of any corporation would run its business.  They also have a responsibility to cooperate with law enforcement as they have done.  Unfortunately, the Ray Rice issue has simply turned into an opportunity for those who dislike Roger Goodell to express their outrage and divert the attention from the abuse issue to that of firing Roger Goodell.  

(fact source: General Media -  September, 2014)

Fact: 

ISUS terrorists are using tunnels outside Bagdad to launch launch attacks against the Iraqis.

OPINION:

Wow, these same tunnels were used by Saddam Hussein.  We also learned a couple weeks ago that ISUS had captured  a Sarin Gas manufacturing plant and there was actually some Sarin Gas left over in the plant.  We also found out even earlier that the terrorists had grabbed much of the arms and munitions left by the US when leaving Iraq.  My god, what the hell did we do in Iraq.  Even now, ISUS is grabbing and using the US weapons left by the Iraqi arm as they were running away.   

(fact source: General Media -  August, 2014)

Fact: 

President Obama has attended 395 fundraisers since becoming president.

OPINION:

The President has really amped up his attendance at fund raisers in order to raise money to limit the number of Senate seats the Republicans could gain in the November, mid-term elections.  The problem, is that he appears not to be paying attention to a number of major geopolitical and economic issues affecting the US.  We learned in the 2012 elections from the Republicans, that no amount of money can overcome a political leader not doing his job adequately. 

(fact source: General Media -  July 24, 2014)

Fact: 

President Obama takes a victory lap on 8 million signups for Obamacare. 

OPINION:

Without getting into an argument over the actual number of new insured's, wait till the insured's have to pay their office co-pays, deductibles, out of network costs, and non-covered medical treatment costs.  They'll wonder why they even have insurance.

(fact source: General Media -  April 18, 2014)

Fact: 

Lots of books and movies being released on Global Warming.

OPINION:

Don't these people ever learn.  I realize they are dialing for some of the $50 billion given away by governments every year for global warming causes. GLOBAL WARMING IS THE SIDE AFFECT OF POLLUTION AND OVER POPULATION. If you reduce pollution and control the world's population, carbon emissions will reduce themselves.  With all the focus in recent years on global warming, we've taken our eyes off ocean pollution.  Over fishing and ocean pollution is going to hurt mankind on the planet a lot sooner than global warming will. 

(fact source: General Media -  April 6, 2014)

Fact: 

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departed Kuala Lumpur Airport on March 7, ascended to 35,000 feet, and all communications ceased except for a random operations ping every hour from its engines.  

OPINION:

Ok, there are a lot of theories on what happened to the flight and these are well covered in other media.  However, the US spends over $600 billion per year in Homeland Security and we don't know where a 777 currently is located !  This is a long range aircraft and could potentially make it to US territories.  You'd have thought after 9/11 that our Defense Department would know were every large commercial jet is located in the world at all times based on the devastation that can be caused by hijacked jet.  It makes me upset that our primary response to 9/11 was to create TSA t pat down babies in  diapers and old women wearing Depends.  (sarcasm but true) 

(fact source: General Media -  March 17, 2014)

Fact: 

Senator Ted Cruz was born in Canada of American parents and believes that it was the Democrats who shut down the US Government last year and that President Obama is solely responsible for  current unemployment rate. 

OPINION:

While President Obama may not be the greatest "operating" President and I disagree with many of his policies, Cruz's statements damn near make my head explode. First, Cruz is not eligible to be president dui to his birth place.  Period. We learned that from the "birthers" in 2012.  (It's their rule.)  Second, the majority of Americans believe that it was the Republicans that shut down the government.  Let's face it, the Republicans are equally responsible for the over-spending by the federal government and now they want to renege on payment.  Nice.  Second, much of the current unemployment is due to manufacturing moving overseas due to international trade agreements that lay bare the American worker to unfair foreign competition. Another brilliant move by the Republicans. Finally, it was Republican sponsored legislation to overturn Glass Steagall in 1999 that led to unregulated trading and risk taking by the banks that resulted in the financial crises in 2008.  Basically, the Republicans broke it and the Democrats aren't fixing it fast enough.

(fact source: CBS   Jan.26, 2014)

Fact: 

The NFL is a 501-C non-profit where the commissioner makes $29.5 million per year and the NFL donates $2.3 million to charity, 2.1 million of which is to the Hall of Fame. 

OPINION:

No wander the US is running a budget deficit.  The commissioner should be allowed to make all he wants, just not as a  non profit. It's the owners of the teams that should be concerned. How many more non profits like this are hiding out there.  

(fact source: General Media   Jan.23, 2014)

Fact: 

Chris Christie denies he knew about a 2-lane shut  down of the George Washington bridge in retribution of a New Jersey Mayor that refused to endorse Christie in the prior elections. 

OPINION:

I don't know the facts yet but Christie did cancel the Trans Hudson Express Tunnel in 2010, an $18 billion project to construct 2 transportation rail lines under the Hudson River to relieve traffic congestion in NYC.  . 

(fact source: General Media   Jan.12, 2014)

Fact: 

Just got notice from my health insurance company that the Affordable Care Act requires that they collect another 4% in taxes from me.

OPINION:

Does anyone else notice the irony.  My health insurance rate went up 9% for 2014 and now I'm being advised that I will have to pay another 4%.  Really?.  How about calling it the "Unaffordable Care Act..  Add to that that I'm in my early 60's and already pay about $1,300 per month for a policy (includes wife) with a $,7500 deductible.  My insurance company has literally paid out $.18 (that's 18 cents) in benefits in the last 4 years.  What a disaster.  We needed insurance reform, not health care reform. 

(fact source: US Mail   Dec. 22, 2013)

Fact: 

Under Obamacare, $250 billion per year will be transferred from Medicare and an increase in taxes on the professional middle class in order to pay for expanded Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies.

OPINION:

Wow, I have never heard paying for Obamacare explained and articulated so succinctly. I don't know the precise numbers but I do know that a whole lot of people are going to get healthcare insurance when they really need healthcare.  Obamacare simply places an additional layer of  profit margin between the individual needing healthcare and the payer.  Also, I can't imagine the 10s of millions of people who don't even turn in an annual tax return so how are they going to be fined for not having healthcare to help pay for the program.  It kind of makes my head spin.. 

(fact source: Fox News Sunday   Dec. 1, 2013)

Fact: 

Republicans continue to rail against Obamacare and are pretty confident that this will give them and advantage in the 2014 election cycle.

OPINION:

What the Republicans don't understand is that although you didn't lay the caca, if you step in caca, you're going to smell like caca. In short, just get out of the way and let Obamacare self destruct on its own.  If the Republicans keep interfering, the democrats are preparing to blame the failure of Obamacare on the Republicans in 2014 and it might just work. 

(fact source: General Media  Nov. 19, 2013)

Fact: 

Republicans in the House have constantly tried to defund Obamacare and now they are demanding a delay in the individual mandate. 

OPINION:

What are they trying to do, destroy the health insurance industry.  Imagine those Insurance Company CEO's thinking that only sick people with pre-existing conditions are going to sign up for Obamacare.  Healthy individuals won't have to sign up until enforcement of the mandate begins a year later.  This is another shot across the bow of business by Republicans.  The Democratic strategists would be well advised to point this out when soliciting donations from business in the next elections. 

(fact source: General Media  Oct. 28, 2013)

Fact: 

About 30 Tea Party congressmen made it clear that they oppose Obamacare under all circumstances including defaulting on the country's debt.  (They believe that there is already enough money to pay the debt obligation even if in means under funding other government obligations.)  There primary principal is to reduce government spending. 

OPINION:

This is where the irony begins.  As a result of their position, the US GDP has been reduced by approximately .3% +, 400,000 employees were furloughed and will be double compensated after collecting unemployment, thousands of contractors will not be compensated and many will go  out of business, thousands of small indirectly related businesses will will go out of business, world opinion of the US will be undermined, and reduction in US credit worthiness will cost the US untold billions in increased borrowing costs.  Nice going Tea Party.  As the saying goes, with friends like you, who needs enemies.

(fact source: General Media  Oct. 18, 2013)

Fact: 

The Republicans are refusing to sign a bill funding the US Government unless Obamacare is defunded.  Yesterday, the Democrats countered with reducing Sequestration. 

OPINION:
I can't believe the Republicans didn't see this coming.  By demanding that Obamacare be changed, the Republicans opened themselves up to changes in Sequestration.  What a bunch of amateurs. 

Special bonus: The Republicans now want to open up Social Security as a compromise to Obamacare.  I don't know about you but the Federal Government has been removing 15% from my (and my employer's) compensation for almost 40 years and now the Republicans want to take some of the benefit away.  Nice, and they expect me to vote for them in the 2014 elections!

(fact source: General Media  Oct. 14, 2013)

Fact: 

In  2011, S&P downgraded the US sovereign credit rating to AA+ from AAA.

OPINION:
At the time I was pretty upset about the downgrade.  In fact, S&P was the only downgrade and maintains that downgrade till today.  The US Justice Department is even suing S&P on the downgrade.  Let's move forward to today.  The Republican House and the Democrat Senate are locked in a ideological battle to partially shut down the government and were banging up against the debt sealing. We have a president who doesn't like to negotiate and after 6 years, hasn't even met most of the members of the House and Senate.  I now cant believe the US is still at AA+.  Ask some of those government employees who have been furloughed what they think.  It almost makes you reconsider ownership of treasury bills.  These are no longer fail safe.  I actually see the other governments of the world placing additional emphases on finding an alternate currency. 

(fact source: General Media  Oct. 5, 2013)

Fact: 

Tomorrow, October 1, is the day that the Obamacare health insurance exchanges go into affect.

OPINION:
Obamacare has already been funded and the irony is that whether or not the Republican House shuts down the economy, it won't affect the implementation of Obamacare.  Additionally, if Obamacare is successful, the Democrats will get the credit and if it fails, the Republicans will be blamed.  By not hooking Obamacare to funding the US government, the Republicans have missed a fantastic opportunity of letting Obamacare collapse under it's own weight and Democrats taking the hit.  Nice strategy. (sarcasm)

(fact source: General Media  Sept. 30, 2013)

Fact: 

Snowden has been offered asylum by Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, .

OPINION:
I had mistakenly thought that relations between the US and Latin American countries had gotten better during the last 40 years.  I went to a Catholic high school in the late sixties near San Francisco that was attended by many students from Latin American countries.  It was a very small school and all the students were quality individuals.  However, on a  political basis, some of my friends from Latin America explained that the US was not liked by a majority of their country men.  During the last decade, I had thought things were getting better die to increasing prosperity.  Sadly, based of the offers of asylum from some Latin American counties, it looks like I was really wrong. 

(fact source: General Media  July 13, 2013)

Fact: 

Senator John McCain speaks out against the overthrow of a democratically elected president of Egypt.

OPINION:
Guess who was democratically elected to president of Germany in 1932?  Don't you wish he had been overthrown?  Doesn't McCain ever learn anything from history.  Even today, how about those democratically elected presidents of Venezuela and Iran.  Dictators often use the democratic process to implant themselves in power and then figure out how to stay in power till they pass away. 

(fact source: General Media  July 7, 2013)

Fact: 

The 400 top U.S. taxpayers in the US paid an effective federal income tax rate of 17% in 2007 which is 30% lower than in 1995.  The top 1% or 1.4 million tax payers paid 23% in 2008 down 29%.

OPINION:
Please note that the 1% (working professionals) paid a higher tax rate than the richest 400.  Guess who has more access to the president, legislatures, and lobbyists!

(fact source: General Media  June 5, 2013)

Fact: 

Small businesses in the US fail to pay to $450 billion per year in taxes. 

OPINION:
All cultures try to avoid taxes but as the US gravitates to a larger percentage of small, cash & carry businesses, expect a lot less in taxes to be paid.  The underground economy is about $2 trillion per year and growing rapidly.

(fact source: General Media  April 3, 2013)

Fact: 

Assault weapon ban stripped from Senator Feinstein's gun bill.

OPINION:
Even Mayor Bloomberg repeated on national TV last week that of the 32,000 + Americans killed in 2012 by guns, 400 were by assault weapons, 12,000 murders by hand guns, and 20,000 suicides by hand guns. 

(fact source: General Media  March. 19, 2013)

Fact: 

President Obama signed into law a $9.7 billion bill to be used to pay some flood insurance claims from Hurricane Sandy.

OPINION:
Let me get this straight.  If you purchased flood insurance from the government, and your home was damaged by a flood, you may not get paid until Congress approves the payment.  So basically, if you comply with the written insurance contract by making your monthly payments, the government has a choice on whether or not to pay you for your flood damage.  In fact, the Republicans tried to block payment to the flood insurance claimants.  You've got to be kidding!

(fact source: General Media  Jan. 6, 2013)

Fact: 

Congress just passed the Fiscal Cliff deal limiting tax increases to couples earning more than $450,000 per year. 

OPINION:
America is the land of opportunity.  Lobbyists were able to sneak in $72 billion worth of pork.  Imagine, a $2 billion investment in lobbying producing $72 billion in payout.  Folks, this is better than Las Vegas.

Update: The expected additional tax revenue in 2013 is $60 billion which is $12 billion less (deficit) than the pork that will be handed out. 

(fact source: General Media  Jan. 3, 2013)

Fact: 

The NRA blames violence in movies and video games on the malevolent use of guns in the US. 

OPINION:
I grew up in the 50's and 60's when many of the movies were about cops & robbers shooting it out, cowboys & Indians shooting it out, and US military and Nazi's shooting it out. I simply don't believe that this had any affect on the homicide rate.

(fact source: Face the Nation plus General Media  Dec. 23, 2012)

Fact: 

The Republican party continues to hold its position that the top 2% of individuals not face an increase in the top federal tax rate to 39.6%.  This would be devastating to small business and future employment.

OPINION:
First, your local small business doesn't net $250,000 per year. He'll find enough additional costs to solve that issue.  The top 2% mostly consists of doctors, lawyers, entertainers, sports athletes, and corporate management whose accountants form business structures for their accountants to reduce these tax burdens.

Second,  while the Republicans are focusing solely on the "tax rate", they are not defending a major increase in the dividend tax (which retired persons depend on in retirement), and they are offering up reductions in deductions including the middle class mortgage deduction and state tax deduction.  With friends like this, who needs enemies. 

(fact source: Face the Nation plus General Media  Dec. 9, 2012)

Fact: 

While the US Ambassador and 3 others were killed in a terrorist attack Bengasi, over 30 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. 

OPINION:
Think about it for a moment.  3,353  soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq since 2003 . This does not include soldiers killed not in combat and private security personnel killed in combat or not in combat.  It does not include 100,000 soldiers and backup personnel injured for life.  Last time I checked, we are still paying $20 billion per year for soldiers injured in the Viet Nam war. 

(fact source: Face the Nation plus General Media  Nov. 2012)

Fact: 

BP - Intended sale to Tesoro, FTC reviewing based on resulting market share issue.

CHEVRON -  Richmond Refinery cancelled $5 billion upgrade due to pressure from environmentalists.

EXXMOB - Sold off all retail and trucking in 2012. 

SHELL - previously sold half of retail in SoCal.  Expanding ethanol capability of =Carson terminal.

TESORO - Rumor that will shut down Wilmington plant within 4 years.

VALERO - Both CA refineries placed up for sale in October 2012.

ALON -  Edgington plant shut down, difficult business plan with Paramount and Bakersfield facilities.

OPINION:
Way to go CARB.

(fact source: General New  Oct. 26, 2012)

Fact: 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins a new six-year term. 

OPINION:
Chavez provides subsidized oil to Cuba and other political allies and cut exports to paying customers like the United States. As a result, crude production has fallen 30 pct, the debt has ballooned to $50 billion from $3 billion, and a big chunk of production is now committed to China and Japan to repay loans. Many energy companies have left Venezuela after Chavez nationalized their assets.

(fact source: General New  Oct. 09, 2012)

Fact: 

There are currently numerous Voter ID legal challenges in a number of states across the U.S.

OPINION:

I don't understand how someone can go through life without some sort of photo ID. In short, they’ve never bought cigarettes, never bought an alcoholic beverage, never driven a car, never got married, never registered a child for school, never ridden on an airplane, never held a job, never signed up for Medicare or Social Security or any other government benefit. I’ve always had to show my Photo ID whenever I’ve done any of the above, 

(fact source: General New  Oct. 02, 2012)

Fact: 

Analysis of graph: 

     In 2000, wages represented 49% of GDP.

     In 2008, wages represented 45% of GDP.

     In 2012, wages represented 44% of GDP.

OPINION:

So much for trickle down economics.  However, the graph may not have been corrected for  benefits including reduced pension costs and increasing healthcare costs.

(fact source: Henry Blodget  June 22, 2012)

Fact: 

Bill Maher (and the Democrat party) has stated that since 2000, there have only been 10 cases of voter fraud out of 146 million voters. 

OPINION:

I'm confused.  According to PEW:

         Nearly 2 million deceased individuals are listed as active voters.

         Approximately 2.75 million people have active registrations in more than one state. 

There is a simple solution, just stamp indelible purple ink on a persons hand after they vote like they do in most 3rd world countries.  It's simple and it works. 

(fact source: Bill Maher  August 18, 2012  / PEW February 14 2012)

Fact: 

Over 8.7 million workers are now on disability in the US. The system ran a deficit of $8.5 billion in 2009 and has risen to $25.3 billion in 2011.

OPINION:

Congress enacted legislation in 1956 to add federal disability insurance to the Social Security system.  It is funded by a 1.8% payroll tax that is split between employee and employer.   Obviously, this is a major operational failure.  Doesn't anyone know how to run anything anymore?

(fact source: CNSNews July 23 2012)

Fact: 

In the past 3 years, guns have become allowed in the National Parks, on Amtrak trains, and in some states, bars.  Even Mexico is complaining about the 2,000 weapons/day crossing the US Southern border into Mexico.

OPINION:

Where was Homeland Security?  Last week a 92 year old lady at an airport complained about a TSA agent forcing her to remove her diaper.  In the meantime, someone is buying 6,000 rounds of assault weapon munitions without any red flags being raised by anyone. 

(fact source: general Media July 22 2012)

Fact: 

The Supreme Court ruled that the Obamacare healthcare insurance mandate is Constitutional regardless of what you call it. 

OPINION:

What am I missing.  Since I have a job, I'm forced to purchase retirement insurance (Social Security), I'm forced to buy retired persons healthcare insurance (Medicare), I'm forced to buy disability insurance, unemployment insurance, and the list goes on.  Since I pay a lot for healthcare insurance, I'm very happy that others will also be required to purchase healthcare insurance so I don't have to pay for their healthcare costs when they become ill. 

(fact source: Business Week Article July 9 2012)

Fact: 

95% of all Republican Congressmen and Gov. Romney have signed Grover Norquist's  "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" which opposes any increases in the marginal tax rate for individuals and businesses, as well as net reductions or eliminations of deductions and credits without a matching reduced tax rate

OPINION:

Very interesting how these politicians place their political responsibilities ahead of their "Constitutional" responsibilities. 

Let's take a closer look at what they're really doing.  They won't raise taxes but have no problem raising "fees" on just about every government service, cutting education so parents are straddled with increasing costs, reducing highway spending so the only way I can get to work is on a toll road, and cutting dozens of other government programs that have made America what it is. (I'm not talking about unpaid for entitlements.) They complain about the destruction of the American way of life.  Congratulations, you have done a great job of helping destroy it. 

(fact source: General News Media  June28, 2012)

Fact: 

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted to find Attorney General Eric Holder  in contempt of Congress for withholding documents in a botched gun-running sting operation (2,000 guns) on the U.S.-Mexico border.

OPINION:

While these hearings were proceeding, over 2,000 weapons per day are heading south over the border into Mexico.  In fact, under current US laws, there is no way to stop the continuing flow over the border.  Nice.

(fact source: Reuters  June28, 2012)

Fact: 

New Census Bureau data shows that median household net worth, excluding home equity, fell by 25% between 2005 and 2010. That decline was mainly due to plummeting individual portfolios and retirement accounts.  The median home equity value dropped 28%. The current recession has wiped out nearly 30 years of net worth gains for the typical household.

OPINION:

So much for the middle class.  The top 5% will begin to feel the affect of this over the next few years and reduced tax revenue will further affect entitlements.

(fact source: CNN  June18, 2012)

Fact: 

Banks, investors, and hedge funds (not oil companies) account for 2/3rds of all futures trading on the NYMEX.  . 

OPINION:

The oil industry keeps taking hits from misinformation being circulated by the news media including cable news.  The crude producers are also major beneficiaries of the higher prices caused by the bank traders.  However, the refining and marketing segments of the petroleum industry get financially slaughtered during periods of high gasoline prices. 

(fact source: CBS Nightly News,  February 24, 2012)

Fact: 

An increasing number of wealthy Americans are moving money offshore. 

OPINION:

The common belief is that wealthy Americans move money offshore to avoid taxation.  According to Smart Money, wealthy Americans pay US taxes based on their worldwide earnings.  The reason they move money offshore is to protect their assets from lawsuits and insurance against the US Government leveling additional levies on their wealth. 

(fact source: Smart Money  February 15, 2012)

Fact: 

It was just announced that Bank of America traded 10% of all stock trades made on the NYSE last month.

OPINION:

I see nothing has really changed.  Imagine that the trading goes south, and then the government (tax payer) has to bail them out again because they are now really too big to fail.  Whatever happened to acting like a real bank.

(fact source: general news,  February 13, 2012)

Fact:  49 States just settled with the 5 largest banks in the US to provide $5 billion in home loan rebates and $20 billion in reduced principle.

OPINION:

I just learned that the 5 larges banks only hold 10% of all home loans in the US except they service a lot more.  Freddie Mac, Fannie May, FHA, and VA hold 85% of the loans in the US.  However, they are exempted from the settlement.  Wow, again, it's the government that is at fault after blaming the banks (who are not without guilt).

(fact source: general news,  February 12, 2012)

Fact: 

Freddie Mac (taken over by the US government) bet billions against homeowners refinancing their homes.

OPINION:

Politics aside, the biggest problem with our federal government is its inability to manage.  President Obama announced in his State-of-the-Union address that the federal government wants to enable homeowners to refinance their homes.  A few days later, Freddie Mac, with 50% of the US mortgage market, is caught making investments in securities that appreciate if homeowners fail to refinance.  Of course, Freddie Mac just instituted guidelines for homeowners making it more difficult for them to refinance.  Isn't this a major conflict of interest.  Who the hell is minding the store!

(fact source: general news,  January 31, 2012)

Fact: 

The Congressional Research Service presented a paper in September 2010 stating that the annual cost of offshore tax avoidance is about $100 billion. 

OPINION:

This paper is over a year old and I don't know the exact definition of tax abuse but due to the high estimate, I would think someone experienced in these issues would put together a fair and accurate presentation of what is going on.  Mitt Romney may potentially lose the Republican Party Nomination due to his inability to define and present, in understandable terms, his offshore holdings.  

(fact source: Congressional Research Service,  September 3, 2010)

Fact: 

It appears that all of the Republican Presidential candidates are in favor of partial or complete privatization of Social Security. 

OPINION:

Think about this for more than a second.  If you get rid of Social Security right now, instead of 55 million Americans on Social Security that paid into the system their entire working life, you would have approximately 50 million Americans collecting welfare checks and unemployment checks because they didn't save enough for retirement.  GREAT!  Wait till you see the budget deficit after this happens.  

(fact source: General Media,  January 15, 2012)

Fact:  Effective Thursday, December 15, US participation in the war in Iraq officially ends.

OPINION:

Or did it?  The US Embassy in Iraq started at $750 million and is now estimated ultimately to cost $7 billion and employ as many as 17,000 contractors.  Contractors are a lot more expensive than troops.

(fact source: General Media,  December 15, 2011)

Fact:  Chris Wallace announces that Congress is about to raise taxes, e.g. the Payroll Tax.

OPINION:

Unbelievable!  Congress is about to let the temporary cut in collections for the Federal INSURANCE Contributions Act (FICA) expire and the Republicans claim this is a tax increase.  I get it.  By not collecting the insurance premiums for Social Security, they can help insure its financial collapse.  The fact that Democrats also want to undermine the collection of premiums for Social Security is mind boggling.

(fact source: Fox News Sunday and other general media,  December 10, 2011)

Fact:  The UN Weather Agency announced that CO2 concentrations in the upper atmosphere are 389 PPM, up 39% from 280 PPM 25 years ago. The latest tests show an increase of 2.3 PPM per year, up from 1.5 PPM a decade ago.

OPINION:

I don't know if the measurements are accurate and if they are consistent.  However, it does appear that the weather conditions in SoCal are warmer today than they were 50 years ago.  I doubt that this warming is caused by man but I am sure that crippling economies is not the solution. 

(fact source: General media,  November 22, 2011)

Fact:  According to Ron Paul, the US maintains 900 military bases in 130 countries. 

OPINION:

It's difficult to substantiate these numbers because the military uses different definitions for military bases.  However, Politifact believes Ron Paul's numbers are mostly true.  Hey, we just added Australia to the list, another base, another country.  No wonder we have a budget deficit.  Last week, the US successfully tested a flying bomb that can hit any point in the world in less than 1 hour.  Let's build a lot of these flying bombs and scratch half the military bases. Think of how much money we could save.

(fact source: General media,  November, 2011)

Fact: 

"Amid hard times, Wall Streeters expect higher bonuses"  

OPINION:

Now are you beginning to understand why thousands of people are occupying Wall Street!  (They don't know why, they just know something is wrong although they can't articulate their position.) Let me recap.  After a major bailout, most financial institutions profits have vanished, their stock prices have collapsed, millions of Americans are out of work due to the financial collapse, and most worker's 401Ks sustained 50% hits.  Realistically, according to other sources, bonuses will probably be down about 10%. 

(fact source: New York Business.com,  October 12, 2011)

Fact: 

After 3 hours of programming on a progressive, nationally syndicated talk show on AM radio, not one single "call-in" had anything nice to say about Columbus.    

OPINION:

OK, I can understand why some people might quibble with Columbus "discovering" America since it was already occupied and we've recently learned that other civilizations had previously explored potions of America, but Columbus was the first explorer to document his exploration which eventually benefited all of mankind.  I look at the bigger picture and come to the conclusion that Columbus represents mankind's interest in exploring the unknown.  Of course, those who minimize Columbus's discovery of America are also probably against our manned space exploration program which is now about to expire.  Go progressives!

(fact source: Thom Hogan Radio Show-  October 12, 2011)

Fact: 

One of the main talking points of President Obama is a $1,500 tax break for the middle class is the form of a reduction in the "payroll tax". 

OPINION:

Really! Let's just go ahead and undermine the Social Security program further.  Last time I checked, FICA stood for Federal Insurance Contributions Act.  Basically, it's a hugely successful insurance program (needs some tweaking).  Not collecting money to support the program is no different than not paying the premiums on your insurance.  Sooner or later, it gets cancelled.

(fact source: General Media-  September 2011)

Fact: 

Warren Buffet keeps saying this his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. 

OPINION:

First, she must be making way over $50,000 per year because 47% of Americans don't pay income taxes.  But let's give this a little more thought.  Buffet receives only dividends from his company which are taxed at 15%.  Since he doesn't take a salary, the total employee cost for his company are equally lower, which results in his company paying a higher income tax at an initial rate of 35%.  Buffet then gets his dividend after his company pays its taxes, and then he pays another 15%.  The net benefit to the federal government is a total 50%although Buffet only personally pays 15% of the total. Oops, I forgot, Buffet's companies are now being sued by the IRS for $billions of unpaid taxes.  Go figure.

(fact source: General Media-  September 2011)

Fact: 

In the 2011 pre-Iowa straw poll debate, all 8 Republican candidates said they would refuse to accept a budget deal with a 10-to-1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases.

OPINION:

No wonder the equities markets are down.  With this kind of no-compromise position, President Obama is sure to be reelected. (Why doesn't anyone differentiate between raising tax rates and closing loopholes.  You can raise the tax rates all you want and it won't make any difference if you don't close the loopholes.) 

(fact source: General Media-  Aug 11, 2011)

Fact: 

On December 19, 2007, President George Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act which will improve the gas mileage of passenger vehicles to 35 MPG by 2020.

OPINION:

I don't understand,  Why weren't the CAFE standards increased when Al Gore was VP?  Wasn't George Bush supposed to be the bane of environmentalists?  To democrats, it seems like what you say is more important than what you do.

(fact source: Wikipedia -  July 30, 2011)

Fact: 

Beginning in 2013, couples earning wages of over $250,000 per year will pay an additional 0.9% Medicare tax for a total 2.35%.   Investment income (capital gains, dividends, interest, annuities, royalties and rent)  will be taxed at 3.8%. 

OPINION:

Just thought I would remind the readers. 3.8% is a significant tax on the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy that have saved for retirement. 

(fact source: General News -  July 28, 2011)

Fact: 

Times Raised   Approx Trillion   Reagan  1980 - 1988   17   $ 1   Bush 1989 - 1992  8   $ 2   Clinton 1993 - 2000 4   $ 1.5   GW Bush 2001 - 2009  7   $ 4   Obama 2009 -             3     $ 4+

OPINION:

Nothing like a few facts.

(fact source: Orange County Register -  July 19, 2011)

Fact: 

60% of the current US budget deficit is a direct result of the Bush Tax Cuts, Medicare Part D, and the 2 wars in the Middle East. 

OPINION:

The percent sounds reasonable although it may be off by a few percent. While the US economy is rapidly becoming Obama's economy, as repeatedly pointed out by many Republicans,  It would be difficult for any President to mitigate these massive increases in expenditures.  We're talking trillions of dollars.

(fact source: general new articles -  July 17, 2011)

Fact: 

The US military budget is over $650 billion per year.  China has the second highest in the world at $95 billion.

OPINION:

I guess if you want to be the world's policeman and nation builder, having a military budget 6 times larger than the next highest is reasonable.  My only issue is that those people that support the budget don't want to pay for it.  Go figure.

(fact source: general new articles )

Fact: 

It's nearing election season and Republicans (I'm a conservative) are gearing up to go after Social Security again.   Yes, Social Security will run a relatively small deficit this year, especially because of weak revenue from a weak economy and the payroll tax holiday.

OPINION:

However, there are a number of mechanisms built into Social Security that are correcting its path:

     1) The age to collect full Social Security benefits is increasing every year.  This needs to continue.

     2) Up to 85% of SS is taxed.  Wealthier individuals already pay more tax and receive less benefit. 

     3) Medicare is deducted from SS and these premiums will increase.

     4) The payroll tax is based on a higher a amount of taxable wages every year and should continue.

It's important to remember that most retirees that receive SS, earned it.  This appears to be a program that is working.  It is not an entitlement for most since they paid for it their entire working life!

(fact source: general new articles -  June 06, 2011)

Fact: 

With unemployment rising in May, housing prices falling, and industrial production registering small declines,  the economy is looking a little bleak. 

OPINION:

While I agree that Washington is not taking the actions I would have taken to bolster the economy  (like reviewing trade policy with individual violator countries, and adding a VAT tax while reducing US corporate and individual income taxes), based on actual stock market indications, there has been some progress:

The math is pretty basic.  I know my retirement savings are a lot better off today than a few years ago.  Just the facts!

(fact source: general new articles -  June 03, 2011)

Fact: 

When a trader speculates in the stock market, they are typically required to deposit 50% of the full value of the security with their broker. However, when that same trader speculates in oil futures the margin requirement is only around 6% of the value of the contract.

OPINION:

Many misinformed Americans still blame the oil companies for high oil prices.  The fact is that Wall Street speculators are responsible for a very large portion of the price increase.  Oil companies must buy crude and sell products based on the fluctuations of the petroleum exchanges. 

(fact source: general new articles -  April 13, 2011)

Fact: 

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) claims on the Senate floor that 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion. The facts are that it's closer to 3%, When CNN contacted Kyl's office, the response was: “His remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions of taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions.”

OPINION:

When someone quotes a fact, I generally take them at their word.  My opinions are based on fact so it is very important that the facts be true.  When someone purposefully states a fact that they know not to be true in order to support a closely held principle, it tells me 2 things.  First, I can no longer trust what they say and second, their principles are not supported by facts.  In short, you're wasting your time listening or talking to that person.  If that person happens to be a Senator, and it was, the US is in big trouble.

(fact source: general new articles -  April 13, 2011)

Fact: 

A lot of attention has been paid lately to Corporations not paying their fair amount of taxes, especially since the US is running some very significant budget deficits. 

OPINION:

The best solution to this problem is the simplest.  Just add a Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) to all corporations with operations and business in the US.  You'll never change the existing tax code.  Just lay the CAMT on top of the existing tax code.  If the AMT is good enough for  workers in the US, the CAMT should be good enough for corporations.  By the way, make it 15% so that the US is not uncompetitive with other countries. 

(fact source: general new articles -  April 9, 2011)

Fact: 

Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on 2010 budget cuts so the federal government will be shut down.  The Republicans want to cut a few extra billion dollars from the 2010 budget, completely defunding Planned Parenthood but won't admit this to the general public. 

OPINION:

While the abortion issue is a complicated issue and much more should be done to encourage adoption, there is no excuse for Republicans constantly lying about their true intentions.  In short, they're holding the Democrats hostage over funding Planned Parenthood.  Those Republicans will find out in the next election (to their detriment) that 53% of Americans believe in Women's Rights.

(fact source: Rep. Peter Roskam (R0Il) on O'Reilly factor -  April 8, 2011)

Fact: 

Why do Republicans keep going after Social Security in order to solve the budget deficit!  Social Security has literally financed the government since President began raiding it in the early 80s.  Besides, insurance is a very conservative idea.

OPINION:

Social Security will represent 4.7% of the budget deficit in 2010  Medicare will represent 14.4% and defense over 80% of the deficit.  See link.  Let's go after the 80%. 

(fact source: General Observation -  March 21, 2011)

Fact: 

Current funding sources for Medicare:

     -  Payroll taxes:                             37%

     -  Premiums:                                 13%

     -  General Fund                            43%

     -  Misc.                                           7%

                                                        100%

OPINION:

Medicare really is an entitlement (unlike Social Security) in the sense that the recipients really haven't paid for their benefits.

(fact source: Yahoo Finance Jan 21, 2011)

Fact: 

Congress has a banquet of options in front of it to raise revenue by reducing deductions:

     -  Employer paid health insurance premiums:     131   ($ billion)

     -  401K tax deductions:                                       118

     -  Mortgage Interest deduction:                             88

     -  State & Local tax deductions.                            78

     -  Charitable tax deductions:                                 47

     -  Lower tax rates on investment income:              24

                                                                                486

OPINION:

Uh Oh. In case you hadn't noticed, your tax rate has not been increased in years but many of the tax deductions for the middle class have secretly disappeared.

(fact source: Business Week  - Reform is in the Eye of the Beholder)

Fact: 

A same average-wage earner couple will receive $555,000 in Social Security benefits after paying $614,000 into the system during their working years.   That’s about 90% of their total contribution not including interest.  (Note: the differential for Medicare is 211%)

OPINION:

Looks like Social Security is a successful financial program for the Federal Government.  I often wander why some republicans want to destroy the program and I'm a conservative.  (However, Medicare is a disaster.)

(fact source: Steuerle and Rennane)

Fact: 

While watching the Rose Parade on TV (from my home in Orange which is just southeast of Pasadena) the float from Sierra Madre won the Governors Award for the "best depiction of life in California".  Of course is was broken down and being towed for the balance of the parade.  

OPINION:

How ironic! Happy New Year.

(fact source: Rose Parade)

Fact: 

Tea Party Caucus members have already requested over $1 billion in earmarks.

OPINION:

This is too easy.  After Republicans voted down eliminating earmarks last week, did you really think they were interested in deficit reduction.  Earmarks are the currency for extracting votes for troubled legislation by the leaders of Congress.  At the end of the day, the 2010 mid term elections will amount to nothing more than hot air.  (As an aside, for those who dislike Fox News, they were the ones that broke the story!)

(fact source: Fox News)

Fact: 

US companies have paid out over  $1 trillion in executive bonus compensation in the last decade.

OPINION:

I had recently heard that just about all increase if value of the S&P 500 over the last decade had been handed out as executive bonus compensation.  If this is the true, no wander there was zero increase in stock value of the S&P 500 in the last decade. 

(fact source: Nassim Taleb  - CNBC)

Fact: 

In the recent document release, no names of American citizens in sensitive positions were revealed.  (I just found out that not a single leaked document was classified as "top secret".

OPINION:

I didn't know that.  I actually thought that many US operatives might be in jeopardy.  The only real confidential information revealed was that our State Department is run by "amateurs" but I should have already known that.

(fact source: John Stossel - O'Reilly Factor)

Fact: 

The US Federal Government classified over one billion documents as secret.

OPINION:

One of the foundations of of a true democracy is transparency.  It's stunning how much information the Government feels it has to hide from the American people.  It's equally amazing how many Americans believe this secrecy is OK.

(fact source: John Stossel - O'Reilly Factor)

Fact: 

You'll hear a lot from Republicans about saving American jobs.

OPINION:

I find it ironic that one of the main reasons for the current unemployment rate is FREE TRADE.  I see a lot of manufactured, high tech products including automobile, arriving on American shores but not much leaving.  Last week, the president of South Korea refused to sign a free trade agreement with President Obama because he couldn't understand why South Koreans would buy American cars although American imports of Korean cars is sky rocketing. It's not only economic, it's cultural.  I have never understood how our political leaders don't understand that foreign countries operate in their own best interests.

(fact source: General Media Quote)

Fact: 

The Department of Homeland Security has seized at least 12 domains in a major crackdown on websites enabling copyright infringement and selling counterfeits of trademarked goods.  

OPINION:

Copyright infringement and counterfeit goods are a serious problem but I generally think of Homeland Security as protecting American citizens from terrorists attacks.  What ever happened to the FCC and FTC?  What other agencies does Homeland Security have enforcement jurisdiction over?

(fact source: General News)

Fact: 

New reports indicate that Wikileaks will produce an information dump of highly secret US government material.

OPINION:

This is dangerous and could lead to the deaths of some Americans.  This is horrible.  However, There is a silver lining!  Is our federal government upset about the leak or that the American public is going to find out just how much secret information is being leaked to foreign governments on a regular basis.  I often wondered how China could so quickly develop a missile that could shoot down satellites in outer space.

(fact source: General Media Quote)

Quote: 

"It is no a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first generation ethanol."  said Al Gore

OPINION:

As the US petroleum industry has been significantly negatively affected by mandated ethanol blending, this is a horrific admission. It has always been my opinion that corn based ethanol is extremely inefficient and that the agricultural acreage used for fuel production will significantly replace acreage for food production, resulting in the starvation of 10s of millions of humans around the world.  Furthermore, once advanced biofuels are developed, the future of the rain forests, especially Brazil, are highly imperiled as their acreage  will be converted to sugarcane production.  As a tree person, I consider this a disaster.

(Please note that I manage a petroleum products marketing and distribution facility in California and am responsible for blending biofuels.)  I've been told I'm an idiot on many occasions. 

(fact source: General Media Quote)

Fact / Opinion: 

The draft recommendation of the President's commission of deficit reduction state that its recommendations would drive tax collections up to 21% of GDP from the historical norm of 18.5%.

(fact source: Yahoo Finance Article)

Fact / Opinion: 

-  In 2010, CA received $.50 of every venture capital dollar invested in US, up from $.42 in the 90s.

-  Did Apple Inc, Google, Twitter,  Facebook move out of state?

-  State & local taxes about 9.7% of the annual state economy - rest of the country averaged 10.5%.

-  In 2005, Californians bailed out rest of America to the tune of about $50 billion & continue to do so.

-  State debt costs are $6 billion a year — total budget $90 billion.

-  The non-partisan Legislative Analysts' Office in Sacramento estimates there's a $136 billion gap in the state pension and benefits system. Size of the state economy? Oh, $2 trillion a year. That's 14 times the size of this gigantic pension-fund gap.

OPINION:

You don't hear about this kind of stuff from people that don't live in California. 

(fact source: Yahoo Finance Article)

Fact / Opinion: 

"Fewer than 1 percent of the 14.5 million cargo boxes reaching the U.S. by water are scanned abroad for terrorist threats."

OPINION:

Also this week, TSA revealed new techniques for personnel on how to slide their hands around passenger's bodies in order to detect potential explosives. 

(fact source: Business Week Nov 8 issue)

Fact / Opinion: 

"Because there is already much more capital available in the world than hard commodities, speculators can increase the price of consumable commodities, like foodstuffs or energy, much higher than traditional consumers and producers can react. "

OPINION:

I think we saw this with the oil markets a few years ago.  Plan on a lot more of this action in future years, especially with corn, sugar cane, and other biofuel crops.  Is this insane or what?

(fact source: Hedge Fund manager Mike Masters)

Fact: 

Since the beginning of 2010, the Department of Homeland Security has deported over 400,000 criminal illegal aliens, half of which had created crimes in the U.S.

OPINION:

This is way more deportation that what occurred during the Bush administration.  Until Congress passes some sort of immigration reform, focusing on deporting undocumented workers that have committed crimes in the U.S. or other countries seems like the logical and humanitarian thing to do. 

(fact source: O'Reilly Factor with Janet Napolitano)

Fact: 

I'm hearing a lot of talk about a "payroll tax holiday" coming from a broad range of politicians in Washington.

OPINION:  

Isn't a "payroll tax holiday" just another way to undermine Social Security.  Democrats want the voters to believe they are doing something about the recession and Republicans believe this to be an opportunity to place a final blow on this program.  We already know that the net flows into Social Security this year will be slightly negative due to the recession and now politicians are trying to reduce the program's solvency even further.

Politicians forget that Social Security was originally intended as an insurance program to insure a minimum level of living standard during retirement, not a true tax.  The more you put in, the more you get out.  Many Republicans seem "hell bent" on taking the "security" out of Social Security.  That's really not very conservative.

(fact source: Fox News Sunday Morning)

Fact: 

I'm hearing a lot of talk about a "payroll tax holiday" coming from a broad range of politicians in Washington.

OPINION:  

Isn't a "payroll tax holiday" just another way to undermine Social Security.  Democrats want the voters to believe they are doing something about the recession and Republicans believe this to be an opportunity to place a final blow on this program.  We already know that the net flows into Social Security this year will be slightly negative due to the recession and now politicians are trying to reduce the program's solvency even further.

Politicians forget that Social Security was originally intended as an insurance program to insure a minimum level of living standard during retirement, not a true tax.  The more you put in, the more you get out.  Many Republicans seem "hell bent" on taking the "security" out of Social Security.  That's really not very conservative.

(fact source: Fox News Sunday Morning)

Fact: 

77% of the American general public does not favor the construction of a Islamic Mosque 3 blocks away from Ground Zero.  (Even though they have that right under the US Constitution.)

OPINION:  

History and the current situation in the Middles East cast doubt about the real intentions of the Imam proposing to construct the Mosque. Many Middle East countries:

  1) Do not believe in the separation of church and state.

  2) Are not tolerant of other religions.

  3) Do not believe in equal rights for women.

  4) Are increasingly bound with Sharia law. 

Of course I could be wrong with the above but I'm hard pressed to find contradictory examples. I have to empathize with the 77% of Americans that simply don't believe in the values outlined above.  There is no doubt that they are contrary to the core beliefs of most Americans and the foundation on which this country was established. At the extreme, construction of the Mosque could be interpreted by jihadists as a symbol of victory over America.

In fact, the Mosque may actually be used to shelter members of the Islamic religion from assimilation in American society and ultimately becoming productive members of American society. This is getting too frustrating.  (There are already over 100 mosques in NY City.)

(fact source: Rasmussen Poll)

Fact: 

Compensation Increase from 2000-2009	Percent:
Military Personnel:	+  84%
Federal Civilian personnel:	+  37%
Private Sector worker:	+   9%