An Interesting Perspective

Posted on 30/10/2020 by Grumpa Joe

I received this post from a friend who got it from a friend. Just who wrote it is unknown. I do know that I have seen these figures before and believe them to be accurate. I have also heard this argument before, and it is plausible.

NUMBERS TELL TRUTH   These numbers help explain why these last eight years prior to DJ Trump were disastrous for the USA. I read the last item and then looked at Trump’s Cabinet. No wonder Washington, DC is in turmoil. Trump’s picks are bosses who expect their employees to work. These are Eye Opening Numbers. This is what bothers a lot of people about Trump. He won’t accept a can’t do attitude, or inexperienced, incompetent performance. He will get results; it just might not be smooth or pretty.    Here are some amazing stats: Make sure you read to the bottom. An eye-opener!

 1 . These 10 States now have more people on welfare than they employ!

 California, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Maine, and South Carolina 2 . Last month, the Senate Budget Committee reports that in fiscal year 2012, between food stamps, housing support, childcare, Medicaid and other benefits, the average U.S. Household below the poverty line received $168.00 a day in government support. What’s the problem with that much support? Well, the average household income in America is just over $50,000, which averages out to $137.13 a day. To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30.00 an hour for 40 hour week, while the average job pays $24.00 an hour.

 3 . Check the last set of statistics!!   The percentage of each past president’s cabinet who had worked in the private business sector prior to their appointment to the cabinet. You know what the private business sector is: A real-life business not a government job.

 Here are the percentages:

38% T. Roosevelt 
40% Taft 
52% Wilson 
49% Harding 
48% Coolidge 
42% Hoover 
50% F. D. Roosevelt 
50% Truman 
57% Eisenhower 
30% Kennedy 
47% Johnson 
53% Nixon 
42% Ford 
32% Carter 
56% Reagan 
51% GH Bush 
39% Clinton 
55% GW Bush 
8% Obama       
90% Trump     

   This helps explain the bias, if not the incompetence, of the last administration: ONLY 8% of them had ever worked in private business! That’s right! Only eight percent – the least, by far of the last 19 presidents! And these people tried to tell our corporations how to run their businesses? How could Obama, president of a major nation and society, the one with the most successful economic system in world history, stand and talk about business when he’s never worked for one?? Or about jobs when he has never really had one? And, when it’s the same for 92% of his senior staff and closest advisers? They spent most of their time in academia, government, and/or non-profit jobs or as “community organizers.”    

I hope you are including DJT in your daily prayers, because if he fails to be President for the next five years, we may never be the same again at any time in the future save an armed revolution, and today, even that would be an iffy proposition..

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Menage a Trois

Posted on 29/09/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Today was one of those days where I didn’t accomplish a darn thing. I had one appointment on my calendar at 3:45 and I missed it. I went to the meeting, but it was already finished.

I had early morning shock when I took my window blind in for repair. The price for replacing the string on this unit was twenty dollars higher than the last one I had fixed in in May. Thankfully, the last repair date was written on the frame in small print. This particular blind was serviced in 2015. I guess opening and closing a blind 1825 times is enough to wear out the polyester string that makes it happen. I thought sixty bucks was expensive when I paid for the last one, but now I have to shell out $80.

I invited my house partner to ride with me, and of course she invented an agenda of her own. She is famous for visiting deli’s for her ethnic food desires. I dropped her off at not one, but two different deli’s. By the time I got home is was past lunch so I snacked and did not eat a substantial KETO lunch. Guess what? I lacked energy all afternoon. I’m learning that eating a substantial KETO breakfast is necessary to maintain my body-machinery. This morning I opted for a small sandwich using a brand new loaf of KETO bread I baked the day before. It was a good sandwich, but evidently not enough to give me the energy I needed. It was a low fat sandwich that did it.

I made up for the energy deficiency by eating a very ample KETO supper. Now, I feel better and I am no longer cold. My hands are finally warm and my body warmth is much better. I find that after losing weight I get cold easily. I guess having a thick layer of fat all around helps keep me warm.

As soon As I post this piece of useless information I will retire to the TV to watch the first Presidential Debate between Biden and Trump. I am afraid that it will bore me to pieces and I will escape to the universe of streaming tv programs non-stop for the remainder of the night. I have learned that my favorite program, Heartland, is out of episodes after thirteen seasons. I happily watched thirteen years worth of a story in less than eight months. Production of season fourteen has been slowed because of COVID-19 and I’ll not see my favorite family until 2021 as the production company rushes to catch up with new product. In the meantime, I find myself watching movies again.

I found a remake of one of my favorites called The Grand Seduction which was done in 2013. It is an English language version of a French Canadian film titled Seducing Dr. Lewis made in 2003. I have watched the original five times over the last ten years and I still love it. The two films are nearly carbon copies of each other in content, but the characters in the 2013 version are not nearly as interesting as they were in the 2003. Another difference was in color. For some reason the new version was not as rich in color as the first. I give Seducing Dr. Lewis five stars and The Grand Seduction four stars. I’ll watch the 2003 version again and again.

The theme of the story centers on a small harbor town on an island in the St. Lawrence river in Quebec province. Their livelihood was fishing but Canadian government regulated them out of business. They now subsist on a monthly check from the government. They hate it. Their mayor is seeking a new company to settle on their island so they can all work again and feel human once more. They find a company but the business requires that they have a resident doctor. They do not have a doctor, and there begins the story.

This story is serious drama but the creativity exhibited by the population is comedic and keeps things moving along. In one scene the mayor is frustrated and can’t sleep. He walks the town at night and winds up entering the home of his associate who is sleeping. The mayor enters his bedroom and plops down in bed next to him. The two men speak of the problem when the partner’s wife pops up and makes a comment that the neighbors will talk about their three-way bedroom tryst. This story is sad, funny, and also up lifting.

The Grand Seduction 2013 -* * * *
Seducing Dr. Lewis 2003 * * * * *

Filed under: Aging, Biography, economy, family, Government, Movie Review | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

Day 25-Quarantine-Balance Need Vs Virus

Posted on 11/04/2020 by Grumpa Joe

“Grind wood,” said my mind, “grind wood.” It has been several days since I attacked my latest intarsia project, so the brain pointed me to the shop. The project is based on roses. It was going to be a short easy project after my last one which put Cecil the Lion in the spotlight. So far, it hasn’t been short, nor has it been easy. Since this is the third time I’ve done a rose I thought it would be simple. Not so. I made a mistake of making the roses too small, life-size actually. But making life-size roses from wood requires great skill, precision, and patience, and I possess none of them.

 

Cecil the Lion

This winter, I made a note to myself to experiment with miniature intarsia. I am thinking of moving to an apartment. Moving to a smaller space would require that I give up my wood working hobby. Thus, the idea of miniatures came to me. I could make a shop with some very basic power tools that would require the space of a kitchen table. The amount of wood I’d be removing would be greatly reduced therefore the dust factor might be livable. I’m still working on reducing noise so that wouldn’t become a lease breaker.

This rose project has a large number of tiny pieces, not unlike a miniature would have. I am learning that miniatures require excellent vision. I wear glasses, but the level of acuity is not there. I have light in my shop equal to the noon-day sun, yet, I still need spot-lights to see the piece I am working on. The idea of moving toward miniaturization is quickly fading. I may be reduced to set up in the bedroom to build model airplanes from balsa wood and glue, like I did in my early teens.

COVID-19 is still a major factor in life. I will break from being a hermit by visiting my daughter for Easter. I warned her that if she gives me the virus, she will have hell to pay. Truth be known she is equally starved for company even though she has a husband, son and daughter living with her. I guess they all lock themselves into their personal spaces and keep at a distance.

The COVID-19 Task Force is finally beginning to see some light, but they are still tenuous about giving a green light to return to work. We are spending two trillion dollars to be able to learn about how this virus spreads to do its damage. If they give up too soon, the data they need will slip from their control. At the same time the economy is about to need a respirator, or it too will succumb to the virus.

Have you ever wondered what it means for the economy to die? Everyone will lose their jobs, except government workers. The rest of us will run out of money, but it won’t matter because nothing will be available for us to use money for. Food will disappear. I don’t know about you, but I definitely need food to survive, more so than toilet paper. Gas will disappear because no one will be working to refine oil, or to distribute gas. Cars will run out of fuel where ever they are and not move again. All roads will be jammed with cars and trucks. Phones will stop working. Hospitals will shut down. Electricity will disappear since power plants will shut down. The list of necessities that are not available is a mile long and we will be stealing from each other to survive.


Deaths

COVID-19 versus Economy

The picture isn’t pretty, so the decision to get the economy back to work before it deteriorates further is crucial. The new question is how many deaths will occur because of a dead economy versus the deaths from COVID-19?

Filed under: Biography, family, Government, health care | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Changing the World

Posted on 23/08/2017 by Grumpa Joe

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My latest book find from the library started out sounding like a drag. Most books on Political Science seem to be somewhat un-entertaining. Nevertheless I read them to learn. Jonathan Tepperman wrote this book and titled it The Fix, How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World of Decline. Right there the title caught my attention because I don’t believe the world is in decline at all. It is evolving onto a new era, but it is not in decline. In fact, I believe that to be stupid. As bad as the USA is at this moment in history it is no worse than previous generations. Yes, the USA is going through growing pains, but it is not in decline. We just have to catch up with the technology and information age. The last time the country changed phases was the change from an agricultural economy to the industrial one. That wasn’t easy either. The difference is we also experienced an amazing generation of people who were inventors and dreamers who fueled the change like Edison, Ford, Firestone, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, JP Morgan, and Rockefeller to name a few. Our current generation has a new group of these people namely, Jobs, Gates, Bezos, Adelson, Ma, Brin, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Musk, and many more. The difference is that these companies don’t employ as many people as the companies of the Industrial Revolution, and the country has a much bigger population to employ.  These companies are steeped in technology to be more efficient, or if they rely on manual labor they have moved manufacturing to the third world. The efficiencies require less manual labor, and our workforce has not caught up to this level of technology. How often have we heard that the USA worker does not want the types of jobs we have to offer them. Most of us think about labor to pick tomatoes or green beans, but many of the jobs we really have to fill require knowledge beyond high school and sometimes even a Bachelor’s degree. We don’t have enough picker jobs, and factory jobs to fill the huge number of low skill migrants that arrive daily. The real emphasis on immigration lies in getting educated migrants.

In the introduction to this book, Tepperman lists ten trouble areas causing the world to wane: 1. Inequality, 2. Immigration, 3. Islamic Extremism, 4. Civil War, 5. Corruption, 6. The Resource Curse, 7. Energy, 8. The Middle Income Trap, 9. Gridlock I, 10. Gridlock II.

For the most part I agree all ten of these points are trouble. I disagree in correcting inequality because no matter how much advancement we make there will always be a separation between those that have some, and those that have a lot more, it is all relative. I do agree that people who live on less than $2 per day are too far away from the one percent, and they can be raised to a level of decent living.

Tepperman then begins his work in earnest and convincingly chronicles how a number of places have raised themselves from virtual ground zero to healthy, growing economies, like Brazil, Canada, South Korea, Indonesia, Rwanda, Singapore, Botswana, Mexico, New York City, and the USA. In each of these places the problems encountered seemed insurmountable: corruption, lack of resources, lack of leadership, etc. What Tepperman realized as he researched is that in each instance a leader emerged who had a different approach to government. These people, men and women both, fell outside the mainstream political parties and used techniques and ideas totally unorthodox to conventional governmental systems. All through the narrative I kept getting visions of President Donald Trump. He too is in a difficult situation. The USA has become stagnant and no longer is able to resolve its problems with a corrupt (swamp) leadership and bureaucracy. Both political parties work against him because they believe he is not of the system. In each of the narrative situations Tepperman cites leaders who were faced with even larger swamps, and more massive corruption. Yet these individuals were able to lead their countries out of the quagmire and into the limelight.

By the end of the read, I was totally engrossed, in the micro history of these countries during periods of problem solving. I also developed a new respect for these countries and their developments.

If you enjoy Political Science this is an excellent book to read: five stars.

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We Don’t Stand a Chance

Posted on 16/02/2017 by Grumpa Joe

http://metrocosm.com/us-immigration-history-map.html

5deefa8eadad4046a41ae47f6306228e.jpg

Let me first apologize for making you click on a second link to see this video, but I could not make it work any other way. This moving map shows the rate of immigration into the USA from all over the world over the past 200 years. Please take note of how immigration speeds up after 1970. with the flow of people flooding into the country it won’t be long before the population of the entire world is living in North America, specifically the USA.

I  found a chart that explains what happened, around 1970, Congress increased the total number of immigrants coming in many times between 1965-1970. Before this change we allowed 250,000 people into the country every year. Congress finally stopped at one million immigrants per year, and wallah, see what happened. All of those people came legally, i.e. they had valid passports. Not all intended to stay, but allowed their Visa to expire, that automatically makes you illegal. There are consequences to allowing a VISA to expire. When such a visitor goes back home, and then tries to return, he pays a penalty in the form of a long delay before being issued another Visa, so they stay over instead. Add these people to those who have been encouraged to enter without any credentials at all, and the USA has an immigration problem, i.e. too many people are here under the radar of the State Department. Immigration estimates are that we are allowing 1.5 million into the country every year, one million legally, and five hundred thousand illegally.
http://metrocosm.com/us-immigration-history-map.html

As with all good things there is a limit to how long one can sustain unlimited growth. Look at business as an example. The number one credo is that in order for a business to survive, it must grow. The result is that companies become over grown, and expand by buying other businesses. This is not necessarily adding value to the system, but it is growing companies. Eventually, they get so large that they become ruthless money machines without any regard for the people working for them. I am still waiting for these mega countries to implode from their size. One way the mega companies are cut down to size is when they become targets of men like the fictional character Gordon Gecko in the movie Wall Street who makes huge amounts of money by manipulating stock values, acquiring a company on the cheap, and then profiting by selling off valuable components.

Our country is pretty much in the same boat as the mega-companies. We needed to increase population because our total birth rate fell below that which is necessary to keep us steady. To augment the population, Congress decided to add people through increased immigration. Their assumption was that the economy would absorb these people and everyone would be happy. The problem is that globalization affected job growth, and globalization began at the same time as we increased the immigration limit, circa 1970. What Congress has never even thought about doing is to readjust the immigration limit to stabilize the jobs rate.
http://metrocosm.com/us-immigration-history-map.html

Currently, we have a world that is entrenched in globalization and every country is being affected in a big way. The immigration spigot has never been adjusted to slow the flow, and we are being over run by too many people that we cannot employ. The world still sees the USA as the place where the streets are lined in gold, and they are streaming in as fast as their bare feet can carry them. The Muslim world still stuck in the sixth century has awakened to that fact, and is breaking their chains to get a piece of the action. Of course they are blaming the Western Nations for their predicament, so they feel morally justified getting their piece by any means.

The only way to deal with this problem is to shut off the inflow until such time as we re-gain control of the economy.

http://metrocosm.com/us-immigration-history-map.html

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