SCIENTISTS CONFIRM:: NO “GAY” GENE.

GAY BEHAVIOR RESULT OF CHOICE:, NURTURE—NOT NATURE

(See Wash Post, L. Bever, Aug 29, 2019, “There’s  No single Gay Gene”)  

According to a recent study of nearly a half a million individuals under the auspices of the National Institute of Health (UK) conducted by geneticists psychologists and others, there is no “gay” gene. ( The full report of the study was published in the prestigious journal Science, August 29, 2019). The trait of being attracted to same sex sexual partners can not be demonstrated  in the genetic pattering of the unusually large group of men and women studied.   It is this author’s  opinion that biologists conversant with the concept of natural selection  would have —early on—assumed that to be the case—since, if indeed such a “gay” gene arose—-normal selective evolutionary processes would have very quickly eliminated it— for obvious reasons.  So it’s non-existence is no surprise to biology. 

The massive study did reveal some minor genetic differences in those who admitted to same sex behaviors.  The UK study also correlated these minor genetic patterns with certain mental health issues such as depression and schizophrenia,  and personality traits such as risk taking and loneliness among others.  Though any scientist worth thier salt would warn that correlations such as they document are complex and do not signify causation.  

After analyzing the genetic data of over 400,000 British men and women in the UK Biobank database accumulated between 2006 and 2010 in a study that was much larger and more diverse than any other of the past,  the scientists of this study concluded that they could hot define a genetic link adding that “there may be thousands of genes which (may) influence same sex attractions and behavior in some minor way. They also state that these minor relationships that they documented may account for less than a third of the impetus toward same sex behavior.  Within this genetic component they discovered DNA varients which were not genes but “single letter differences in DNA sequences” and “others they could not identify” (?). (If they could not identify them how did they know they existed?)    However, these findings were of demonstrable  minor import since using these same data sets the investigators could not predict how people in unrelated data sets would report their sexual behaviors.  There was obviously too little genetic data  to be predictive.   It remained unstated, but it was thus clear that the remainder of the causative effects for such same sex behavior as described in the study i.e. the remaining two thirds of the causes thus must be related to environment, upbringing, social and nurturing patterns of those who report same sex attractions.  

Thus from this report we can conclude, as was expected—that there is no demonstrable genetic basis for same sex behavior.  The study attempts to quantify the admittedly weal and unclear genetic factors at 1/3  —leaving the readers to conclude that over 2/3s of the effects according to the authors must be other than genetics, or  the result of upbringing, home environment, familial nurturing and so forth.  The study seems to clear up what had been the  old recurrent question of “nurture vs nature”.  This report seems to put the nature side of that equation to bed for good.  

The gay community I suspect would like the results to have supported the contention that same sex sexual behavior is “simply a natural part of our diversity as s species”.  But there is no support for this contention in the results of this study of almost half a million men and women.  Were such behaviors a “natural part” of our diversity as a species and not a learned trait—evidences would exist in our gene pool.  It does not. 

    

BUTTIGIEG IN THE BIBLE BELT

I read today in the reports from the 2020 campaigners ( Washington Post, August 24, 2019) that Democrat presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and US Navy Reserve service member,  has opened a “Christian offensive”  to attract desperately needed black voters.  Buttigieg  who has had top-tier financial support from the gay community, but continues to  poll in the single digits nationally is now faced with upcoming appearances in the south where he has very little (0% reported ) appeal among black voters.  Any democrat must win a sizable percentage of this critical black vote to win.  Buttigieg has little appeal among this key element of the Democrat constituency.  If he is to remain a viable candidate he must appeal to more than the gay community that has been his key support both financially and in the polls.  

Buttigieg who is open about his homosexuality, and is  “married” to another man, but Buttigieg also claims to be a practicing  “Christian”.  This is an oddity itself in the anti-Christian, anti- religious, anti-life, anti-Hyde amendment status of the modern-day Democrat Party.   But as an avowed proselytizing and practicing homosexual “Christian” Buttigieg  faces an uphill battle in the Bible Belt of the US south and among the typically religiously conservative black voters in those regions who know their Bible verses and take their religion seriously.  Perhaps their natural sense of propriety would prohibit them from openly accosting  Buttigieg at a debate concerning the Christian prohibitions against Buttigieg’s professed lifestyle (found in  the  Old Testament:  Leviticus 12:13 (homosexuality) “is an abomination” “....a detestable act”, or in the New Testament of Paul to the Romans: 1:26-27 where Paul states prohibitions against “men with men committing indecent acts”.  Or where Jesus himself restates in Mathew 119: v 3 the Christian concepts of marriage between a man and a woman.)  but they will be surely thinking to themselves that this guy is a real hypocrite. 

Buttigieg is smart, well educated, attractive, as well as a superb communicator— and slick politician.  But his Christian credentials, are in tatters. On one hand because  he must adhere to all of the anti-Christian dogma of  a 2020 “politically correct Democrat”,  and on the other, as a charter member of the LBGTQQ community.   The glaring facts about Mayor Buttigieg’s lifestyle—have not prevented the slick politician in Buttigieg’s character to lace his stump speeches with fulsome references to Christian philosophy and teachings in an hypocritical attempt to win over this essential element of the Democrat constituency.    Mayor Pete has even hired a “Christian outreach” person to smooth over his way into the minds and hearts of these honest people who take their religion very seriously and in doses of literal Biblical extractions. 

One wonders how Buttigieg will survive in the South among Christian  blacks who see him as a hypocrite Christian who would claim the mantle of Christianity as he ignores the integral tenants of that faith against abortion, same sex marriage, and acts of homosexuality that undergird these beliefs.  

Buttigieg, even with his Oxford-honed delivery will not be able to have it both ways—he either accepts  the teachings of the Christian faith—or rejects them for some patched up  self-satisfying beliefs of his own.  But why try to call oneself a Christian when you reject its major teachings?  Is it only for the justification of a fringe lifestyle that it brings?  Buttigieg must be seen for what he is—only another slick politician claiming the mantle of Christianity only for the votes of Christians that might lead him  to higher office.

Got the picture?    

CHINESE WANT REGIME CHANGE —NOT TO CHANGE THEIR TRADING WAYS!!

The Democrats love to blame the Russians for interfering in our elections. They spent more than two years on that wild goose chase.  But the game the Russians (might have) played in 2016 is chicken feed to what the Chinese are up to in 2020.   They are after regime change rather than having to change their trading ways with the USA. 

The Democrats would like to ignore the gyrating Chinese bull in the antique shop.  They prefer to look past the dumping of underpriced manufactured goods on our markets to kill competition, or the theft of US technology, or the Chinese currency manipulation, or the closing of markets to our products, as well as the outright  transfer of jobs and wealth from the US heartland (there are few Democrats out there! ) to China.   Our President has made a strong case against these trade malpractices that result is the USA workers and small businesses getting the short end of the stick to the tune of about a half a trillion dollars each year.  

When the Trump Administration began a long series of negotiations on these issues to no avail then in frustration put the screws to the Chinese by imposing tariffs on their products,  they did promise to begin a dialogue  to amend their ways and begin playing on a more level playing field with the USA.  But just as they reneged on their long term (since 1997)agreement with the British on Hong Kong’s independence rights the  current Prime Minister Xi Jinping has reneged on his agreement with President Trump.  The Chinese PM must have realized that businessman Trump is deadly serious about his intention for a fair trade. deal for the USA with China.  

In the past, all the Chinese leadership had to do was dangle the fact of China’s hungry 1.3 billion consumers in front of Democrat or Republican presidents for them to blink and give in to any Chinese demands, shenanigans intransigence and cheating.  These past WH occupants were only too happy to satisfy the greed of their deep pocket corporate sponsors and screw the American workers as they ignored the best interests of the USA.  

The President has been very patient, expecting Xi to come around with a fair trade deal.  But instead they have now (August 23, 2019) ignored their promises to forge a compromise fair deal with the USA.  Today they announced that they have imposed their own retaliatory   tariffs on $75 billion dollars in US imports (into China).  But the products they chose to impose these costs on reveal a great deal about their intentions.  They targeted  products that are important in midwestern states that Trump must win to be reelected in 2020.  They are aware of the US system and its politics.   They targeted 5000 products in midwestern swing states such as soybeans (Iowa), auto parts and automobiles (Michigan) oil and aircraft and  machine parts (Ohio).  Thus it is clear.  They do not want to deal.  They will not compromise,  They would  prefer REGIME CHANGE to change of (their) trading ways . 

They are clearly stating that they are going to use their influence to impact our coming election. 

That is not good.           

IS ISIS DEAD OR ALIVE? AFGHAN LONG WAR SHOULD END

Every time President Trump tries to push his plan for an end to the Afghanistan Long War (ALW) Yesterday that’s what this conflict is—our first 20 year war.   So there is a clear correlation between the President’s threats to reduce our troops in Afghanistan and  stories appearing in FOX news of how ISIS is still “alive”, and “it’s still a threat”.

As citizens we must all be aware of the biases of the talking heads (particularly low ranking retired generals who appear as “experts’ on FOX) that claim they are “informing” us.  We must realize that there are powerful elements in our establishment who make a fine living supporting wars.  (Long ago President Eisenhower termed these forces “the military-industrial complex” (MIC)).  The MIC are making a fulsome living simply keep us in a never ending war.  Sadly many have a financial motive to keep it going.  These powerful forces in our establishment and government need ISIS to continue to be considered—an existential threat.   I’ve even heard that old saw “ we must fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here”—used so long ago by boy President George Bush  to inveigle us into the Afghan Long War.  As long as ISIS and the other “bad guys” are still seen as a threat they will keep the funds rolling in to the massive military establishment and the lucrative cottage industries and retired talking head generals that have grown up around these companies. 

But is ISIS still alive?  There are significant variations in opinion about this from our intelligence services and the Pentagon.  To this author, it seems clear that those who have a financial stake in the MIC and in the ALW these folks continue to see ISIS as “alive and well”, while those who have no financial interests see otherwise.  We as citizens, voters and tax payers should all be suspicious of those who are profiting from the ALW and may have opinions that are informed by those profits. 

To most disinterested parties and outside observers, ISIS is done for.  Their leader may (or may not) still be alive.  They are confined to a few “Wild West”” areas in mountainous border lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan.   They are no threat to us.  If peace finally does come to Afghanistan and the Taliban are part of that government, the Taliban fighters (no push overs) will be the natural enemy of any ISIS takeover.   It’s difficult to sate this now but the fact is that the Taliban were always only a local domestic Afghan force.  They were never a threat to us.  They will continue to fight us for as long as we remain there.  So draw our troops down, move out and let the Taliban protect Afghanistan.  That’s want they want. 

Let’s end the Afghanistan Long War. Pull US troops out.  Let’s put that money to refueling the infrastructure of the USA...a place that has been badly ignored over the years spend on the Afghanistan Long War.  

We need these folks for our protection.  But we also need a strong and vibrant ecoomy and society to sustain the military forces we actually need.  So keep this in mind.  We probably do not have to spend  more than the next ten largest economies on the planet spend on their militaries to be able to defend our interests around the world. 

LOOKING AT WARREN/SANDERS PLANS—WHERE DOES THE $ COME FROM

Where would the funds come for the Democrats “free stuff”?

Some basic facts about our economy:

At the present time (August 2019) the USA GDP (gross domestic product) is estimated to be roughly $20 trillion dollars.  That is: 20 thousand piles of greenbacks in which each pile comprises one billion dollars.  Our GDP is a measure in dollars of the value of all the goods and services  the nation produces in all of its business activities in a year.  The USA is a leader in this category.  For comparison China’s GDP is about $ 13 trillion US dollars, Japan about $5 trillion, Germany about $4 trillion.  Our GDP number places us at the very top of all the nations in the world.  

In order to protect the country and its citizens and carry on the essential business of state, the US government in Washington DC  taxes individuals and businesses (mostly) based on their income.  US Federal revenue for 2019 is expected to be about $3.6 trillion dollars.   Thus we tax our businesses and individuals on average roughly at about 1/5 or 20% of our GDP.   

However, exigencies arise and plans are often unrealized so it is also estimated that at the end of the fiscal year we will have spent $4.6 trillion dollars more than we actually have.  Yes we spend about $1 trillion dollars more than we actually take in as revenue.  Let’s speak that.  We will spend about $1 trillion dollars that we do not have.  That figure —one trillion—is what is known as the “annual federal deficit”.  We must borrow that money from lenders far and wide.  Then pay them interest on the loan. 

These annual deficits are common and just as you might expect—they accumulate.  If, as in any working class house hold. no  one puts away money in the “cookie jar” for the rainy day and spend the family’s  entire revenue—there would be nothing left to pay off debts.  In that “spend thrift” household debts would tend to accumulate from year to year.  

Over the years and decades the US government has almost always run a deficit.  As a result the annual deficits (except for a few years in the ‘90s) have accumulated to the present time to  about  $20 trillion dollars. This amount is known as the federal debt.  And as you may have noticed, that deficit is about equal to our GDP.  

Thus we owe to our bond holders and other entities we are indebted to about the same amount as the value of all of goods and services  that we as a nation produce annually.  

To service that debt in 2019 it cost the USA about $400 billion dollars each year.  That is money that we have to pay to our bond holders for using their money.  If we keep up with our spending habits as they are—some estimate that by 2028–in less than a decade—that amount —the amount to service our debt—will rise to close to one trillion dollars.  Get the idea?

Recently our politicians of the left have been heard calling for massive increases in government spending.  Admittedly many of these proposals are attractive.  Free medical care, a $1000 bonus check for everyone one of us each month, free college, open borders to accept any and all with open arms, etc., etc.  According to several sources, as well as the authors of these plans—-but let’s take just the “for free government medical”  it would cost about $3 trillion dollars annually to implement the Warren-Sanders medical health care plan.  Let’s ignore the fact that most people now are happy with their employer provided plan —which they would have to give up, and concentrate on the cost.   

Where can we possibly get the funds—$3 TRILLION DOLLARS  FOR HEALTH CARE (LOOK BACK AT WHAT OUR 2019 TAX REVENUE IS)  to spend such an amount?

Where would the funds come to fund—the Green Revolution, free college for all, reparations for slavery, or health care for illegal immigrants, etc. etc. etc.  Nothing available for those promises.

We must keep in mind that we currently spend nearly one trillion dollars of tax revenue annually on wars, military hardware, care for veterans and salaries as well as maintenance of the largest military in the world and the 800-900 military bases we maintain world wide.  But even if we were to defund the entire military effort and divert the third of our tax revenue we spend on our military efforts around the world—-put it toward medical care  for all— we would not have the funds for the healthcare program the progressives envision.  Let’s not ignore the impossibility of implementing the other promises of the progressives or more importantly the nation’s other essential services would have to go begging.  

So clearly these Warren/Sanders ideas are “pie in the sky” from politicians on the make.  They are pulling the old snake oil salesmen’s tricks of time memorial—buy it now and tomorrow Ill be out of here and on the road.  For them its vote for me now and when I’m in office I’m sure to find reasons for not doing what I just said. 

Of course if elected they could massively raise our taxes, destroy our economy in the process, and expose us to world with a completely defunded USA military .  

   

DUMB STUFF—WESTERN TRADE WITH CHINA CREATED A MONSTER

GREED OF CAPITALIST WEST CREATED A  GLOBAL  MONSTER OF  CHINA

BUSINESS INTERESTS STIFLE TRUTH OF CHINESE THREATS AND MISDEEDS

The West is silent on the misdeeds of China. It is the sacred cow with 1.3 billion potential customers. US hawks -dependnet on the lobby dollar must  ignore China’s threat—so they turn their ire on  Russia (they need an enemy —any one will do).  We have no real business interests with Putin so pillorying him is just fine.  .  The entire Russia-gate scandal of the first two years of Trump’s term can be explained by that simple observation.  Trump began his tenure with an attack on China...The powers that be did not like that move. 

History will look back on the last two or three decades as an example of the dumbest political moves of all time.  Western Democracies—with the USA as their leader—undermined their own economies to shift wealth and jobs to China, permitting it to grow into an economic and military behemoth in only a few decades.

When, as a child, my family and I sat down at dinner in our humble working class home, my father often urged us to clean up our plates with the admonition  that “people were starving in China!”
It was the truth. The newsreels of those days pictured the small, skinny Chinese flooding the streets with millions of bicycles, and we learned they survived on a bowl of rice and a few steamed vegetables.

Today, four decades later, they are a rich technologically advanced country, boasting the second largest economy in the world, modern infrastructure, a huge military.  Today they burn up enough coal and oil with their industries and automobiles to pollute our atmosphere at the same levels as the rest of the world's industrial giants

Yes the geniuses in Washington DC and Europe set the stage for the greatest transfer of jobs, wealth and industrial technology in all of world history from west to east.   These greed-blinded dummies took  our best jobs and national wealth from our citizens and our nation’s heartland and handed them over to China.  Our greedy business leaders  and complicit incompetent, unprincipled, corrupt politicians lined their own pockets as they hollowed out our middle class you  giving away our industrial base.  Not all of the west was as dumb as America at this—the Germans (always concerned about how to make a buck) protected much of their manufacturing and continue to do that today.  Oh if we were as smart.

So here we are today faced with an economic and military monster we created ourselves. It fell to President Trump, the first of our leaders—-Democrat or Republican—(both are complicit in this stupidity) to underscore the danger and economic peril of our relationship with China.  It was not a popular move since all the big business interested and the pols who were bought and sold by these groups were making money in China.  President Trump made the trade revenue imbalance between the USA and china —a half a trillion dollars annually (and growing) a key part of his election campaign.   Trump was also the only leader to expressly and constantly expose the fact that the Chinese manipulate the yuan (to keep our exports expensive to them and their exports to us cheap). He underscored the fact they dump goods and products on our markets at prices below production costs so as to undermine and destroy competitors.  He continues to remind voters that China steals our technology, that they force our companies ( hog tied  by greed) to hand over proprietary information or establish manufacturing plants in China before they can sell product there.

In foreign affairs they have invested widely in Africa and Asia focusing on utilities, mining, port construction and telecommunications.  The goals are often to secure raw materials and fuels, and to use excess construction assets that china has to keep its workers employed.  However too often  the repayment schedules are such that these undeveloped countries often can not meet their debt  resulting in confiscation of assets by the Chinese lending entity and control of major components of a naitons economy by a Chinese corporation.   And now with their massive military buildup, they have begun  to flex their muscles overseas, claiming control over vast sea lanes in the South China Sea,  building fortress islands, threatening foreign shipping in those areas.

Most recently Beijing has shown signs of reneging on the 1997 agreement they made with the British when they left Hong Kong.  In the last ten weeks the recent mass protests over the “extradition law” proposed by Beijing , Carrie lam the titular “governor ‘ of  Hong Kong has shown herself to be only a puppet of Beijing—being unable to withdraw the law.  The protests continue. . In this latter example we can clearly see what the Chinese stand for...its not freedom of expression.

 The overlords in Beijing pull the strings in Hong Kong and will not give an inch to the protestors who are only asking to keep the modicum of freedoms they had—-!  The Chinese leadership has reveled itself as a force of regression into tyranny.

But the West is very silent over these developments as well as the history of Chinese misdeeds and aggression.

Why?

Greed!  Those 1.3 billion potential consumers keep much of the pro-business American media quiet, keep many of our allies mum, especially the Germans (pro immigrant and progressive Mrs. Merkel has said not one word about the plight of the protestors in Hong Kong).  The same motives of greed keep our tech giants all with big stakes in China like Google and Amazon and Apple silent on the plight of the Hong Kong freedom protests .

Many of our US companies are shaking in their boots about the reasonable and sensible push back President Trump has made agaisnt Chinas trade policies.  He is the first one who has put the benefits of our nation as a whole over the profit motive of the giant inter nations companies—-who too often use lucre to control the political agenda.

Over this same period of silence on China—due to the economic and monetary benefits to our huge companies—there has been a concomitant and vicious turn of opinion against Russia ...Well the USA needs enemies...just to give credence to its huge military expenditures—so if China is ignored.  Poor Russsi can be pilloried.  We have a piddling few billion dollars trade with Russia.  No threat to our business giants,

Got the picture?

LOS ANGELES —-SANITATION OF THIRD WORLD CITY?

Lack of proper sanitation is a serious health threat today in the Third World and sadly and surprisingly in some US cities as well.  When humans lived in small migratory bands moving over the landscape in search of food and game...the problems of soiling food and drinking water with human wastes was minimal.  Our early ancestors dropped their excreta wherever they happened to be and moved on.  No problem!

But with the advent of agriculture, animal husbandry and the development of settled communities where large numbers of people congregated led to contamination of food and drinking water with human body wastes.  The problem must have immediately became apparent and deadly clear to these early settlements.  Those communities that did not address the problem simply died off from disease.

Human body wastes are about 30% bacteria (alive and dead) by weight.  Among the bacterial flora (they are plants) are healthful decay bacteria as well as disease bacteria.   Disease germs, both viruses and bacteria are phenomenally opportunistic.  They take advantage of every opening to invade and and infect and increase their populations.  The fecal-oral transmission route is one in which these bugs are best adapted to.  Even a tiny speck of fecal matter containing only normal decay bacteria that are found in the lower gut—even if dispersed in gallons and gallons of water— can produce awful digestive problems when they enter the stomach and small intestine. The result is diarrhea.  Not so bad you say?  But that disease is the prime cause of malnutrition and stunted growth in children in all third world countries.  But that is not all. Acarids (round worms and tape worms) which also lead to malnutrition and stunted growth in children are transmitted that way too.  As are other horrible diseases such as: cholera, hepatitis (all types) polio, schistosomiasis and trachoma to name only a few.

Even the ancient Romans understood the need for proper sanitation.  More than 2000 years ago Roman engineers insured  a surfeit  of fresh clean water running into the city from surrounding rivers and springs which fed public fountains via the famous aqueducts.  These sources were carefully protected from contamination.   They also built and maintained separate public baths, as well as large communal public toilets.  These toilets —were used by the entire population.  The toilets drained directly into the famous “cloaca  maxima” —the huge sewer system of Rome—that carried waste water away from the city—into the Tiber River.  No drinking of that river water was allowed. .  No doubt they had rats too.  But they didn’t permit the public to defecate or urinate on the streets.  Because of its advanced sanitation Rome and its population survived in mostly good health for more than 500 years.  It’s collapse came as a result of invasions of barbarians who in part did not have the same concern for sanitation.

Sanitation (the access to sanitary toilets and fresh potable drinking water) was deemed so important in 2010 the UN voted to establish it as a “human right”.  No so with the Los Angelenos!  Sadly this US city may be descending down into the ranks in sanitation of Third World Delhi, India where only 60% of the population has access to a toilet—the rest of the population  defecate where ever there is an open weedy lot.   You must watch where you step in those places and also there is no place to wash one’s hands in those dry lots.  Don’t forget how important that is —to thoroughly wash your hands afterward—-dirty hands are excellent at transmitting fecal bacteria onto doorknobs, computers, computer key boards, foodstuffs and anyplace humans puts their hands.

The ancients knew how dangerous the spread of human waste was—-they knew a city could not survive without strict controls on human waste and functioning sanitation systems.  What we are seeing in  Los Angeles and in San Francisco as well as other US cities where large populations of homeless congregate are unsustainable circumstances that will lead to health disasters.  

Ugh!!!!

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CIRCULAR REASONING IN THE STOCK AND BOND WORLD

ONE GROUP OF OVERLY JITTERY INVESTORS  PURCHASE  MORE SHORT TERM BONDS THAN LONG TERM ONES.   THE SAME GROUP OF INVESTORS LOOK AT THE RESULTS OF THEIR OWN  ACTIONS — USE THE TERM  “YIELD CURVE INVERSION”  AS IF THE DATA WERE INDEPENDENT OF THEIR OWN ACTIONS.     THEY CLAIM SUCH A CURVE  “PREDICTS A RECESSION”.     OTHERS  WOULD CALL SUCH A PREDICTION CIRCULAR REASONING.

 “YEILD INVERSION” CAUSES PANIC. THE MARKET RESPONDS WITH AN 800 PT DROP

The sale of stocks and bonds generates a great deal complex charts and graphs, but much of it is based on skimpy data.  The little data analysts  do have is a bit over worked—particularly since the advent of powerful computers. The results themselves are then re-analysed—into meta data—often pushed through the computers over and over again as if they were new, independent data points.  The results can too often be characterized as gobbledygook.

We don’t need to internalize the complicated  curves on a computer screen to know that the US economy in the real world is booming every where one looks.

But could we be experiencing something else?  Perhaps we are experiencing attempts at economic sabotage ?

Some would have us sink into a recession for political purposes.

Bill Maher, the late night TV host and comedian, infected with and a vector of the Trump Derangement Syndrome virus, makes his living saying politically incorrect things, and  is presently the  host  of Real Time and Politically Incorrect late night shows.  On Real Time just recently, Maher, quipped that:  “the only way that President Trump could be defeated in 2020 is if  the nations suffers a recession.”  In a less politically fraught and tense national environment—this would mean little and have no impact.

Only a day after Maher’s off the cuff comment, the so called “scary” yield curve on the long term bond yield vs short term bonds got splashy front page attention on our nation’s news sheets.  The graphs exhibits the “dreaded” inverted trend lines.  Panic broke out among the stock/bond owning classes who seem to act like lemmings on their way to the nearest cliff or a skittish herd of cows during a thunderstorm.  Wealthy traders who have seen their investments grow enormously by a least one-third since 2016 reacted  to the yield curve scare by charging en masse  to the nearest telephones and stock floor, in the process scuffing up their shiny “seven Benji” Nordstrom “Donnie Bit”  oxblood loafers, and staining their 10 Benji Saint Laurent, “pique plastron” poplin, dress shirts with anxiety generated body fluids, stains which their  dry cleaners will have a tough time removing.

When the USA has the hottest economy in the world, and people and money are flooding here to find a safe harbor.  When interest rates are near zero, inflation is low, employment is the highest its been in half a century and our working people are seeing real growth in paychecks and full of optimism the chattering classes  are bent on staring at “inverted yield curves” based on circular reasoning.

But can some of this be the result of  intrusion of politics into the world of economic analysis and prediction?




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DUMB STUFF—FROM DC: CYANIDE AND GLYPHOSATE

DUMB STUFF:  THE EPA BANNING LABELING OF “ROUNDUP” AS A CARCINOGEN!!!
REAUTHORIZING CYNIDE BAITS???

“Roundup” the widely used herbicide is the commercial name of a substance which has the poison glyphosate as its main active ingredient. Glyphosate is classed as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Heath Organization.  Glyphosate kills weeds by interfering with the production of essential amino acids in the actively growing tips of the plant.  Weeds desiccate, turn brown and die. (The dead trees you see so commonly on lawns and golf courses are probably the result of this too widely used weed killer). It is also used on grain crops such as oats to desiccate the crop and facilitate cutting and processing prior to harvesting.  That use is why small amounts of glyphosate are frond in your “Cheerios” and even children’s oat meal.  Agricultural use of glyphosate products has been correlated with the incidence of  Non Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) a cancer.  An American  couple who brought suit against the company do to the fact that they contracted NHL won a $2 billion dollar settlement from Monsanto?Bayer (later reduced to $87 million dollars)      Finding the “smoking gun” of a direct relationship between cancer and the chemical for such substances is difficult.  Recall how long it took for the government to arrive att the conclusion that the use of tobacco products and cigarettes caused lung cancer.  There is plenty of evidence which correlates glyphosate with cancers in humans but—making a case for causation is always more difficult.  Powerful, companies making billions of dollars on the sales of millions of tons of these products can often wriggle off the hook and claim that there is “no direct proof”.  But the fact that the WHO classes it as “a probable” carcinogen is all that I need to avoid its use.  The EPA should be working for the environment and the American people.  They seem to be protecting the big (German) Bayer company on this deal instead.  Tsk tsk tsk.  This is dumb stuff par excellence.

:MORE DUMB STUFF:  REAUTHORIZING  the use of the M44 sodium cyanide killer baits for use against“predators”.   It’s past time that we ended the practice of setting out poisons to kill “predators” indiscriminately.  Our old Wild West of the last century is gone,  gobbled up in to many places by suburban sprawl.  Our formerly untrodden  national wild places are commonly and frequently camped on and crisscrossed by humans and their pets, who with increasing frequency enter formerly wild or infrequently visited areas where these baits might be placed.    Predator control when absolutely necessary should be by the direct action human control agents who can distinguish actual predators from innocent pets, non-target animals and protected species.  In the face of increasing use of wild lands the careless setting out of an M 44 canister which look like an innocent  lawn sprinkler but which kills instantly and indiscriminately is asking for problems.  Furthermore, the possibility of killing non-target animals, even those that are protected by law, as well as harming humans is always a very real possibility.    Over the years of its use in the past these horrific devices have killed scores of pets, and sickened people who accidentally encountered the deadly devices.  No! no! no! to the M 44! reauthorization..

WORDS MATTER: ILLEGAL MEANS “NOT LEGAL”. INVASION ..MEANS “TO ENTER”

The word monitors are at it again.  If they can not win elections by the ballot box they will try some other means of controlling the minds and actions of the electorate.  Let’s not fall for it.  Our Founders were well aware of attempts  to abridge speech and control the thoughts and actions of citizens—because they suffered under such acts by British overlords.  The Founders being aware of these abuses gave us our First Amendment and our right of free speech.  Let’s not forget that!  The word-police are “abridging freedom of speech” by making attempts  to control which words we use.  That is expressly prohibited in our Constitution.  You want to use accurate terms such as“invasion” and “illegal”?   Use them!

When a person climbs over a fence clearly designed to keep them out and cross an international boundary without permission of the government of that nation, these individuals have broken the law.   Their behavior was an illegal and the act is  accurately described as “illegal”.  If they  remain in the nation they entered illegally, they are  are accurately described as “illegal immigrants”.  Those who favor open borders would like us all to cease using this term.  They prefer to hide the facts and use the term “undocumented” immigrants.

That term  does not accurately describe the status of someone who has crossed into the territory of the USA without going through the legal process which was established by the nation’s lawgivers.  (There may be individuals who might be accurately described as “undocumented immigrant”. Perhaps someone who has entered the country legally but has lost or misplaced the documents which are required, may be so described.). So let us not be cowed by the word police, illegal immigrant is an accurate descriptive term. 

The President has been recently pilloried unfairly for using the term “invaded” or “invasion” when describing the flood of immigrants along our southern border.   That word is derived from a Latin term meaning to “to enter”, “to take possession of”, or “to attack”.  It also has a military more recent meaning: “to invade militarily”, but that is not is root meaning at all.  The term “invasion” is also a perfectly accurate term to describe the movement of substances, things or people from one place into another place and particularly in the case where the substances, things or people are not normally found there, are not wanted, or where they do no belong.   

In biology plant or animal species may move into or  “invade” environments in which they did not inhabit before.  The movement of these new species is accurately termed “an invasion”.  Bacteria may enter a wound and “invade” surrounding tissues.  The bacterium involved could accurately be described as an invader and the event itself as a “bacterial invasion”.   Shall I go on?   Invasions do not mean “military invasion”—which the word-police seems to want to stick on the President’s usage and then claim he misspoke.  

Invader is a perfectly good word used to describe people who congregate in large numbers on one side of a boundary and then surge across the border en mass. That act is properly and legitimately described as an “invasion”.  It has nothing to do with a military invasion.  

So beware of the politicizing word police.  These actions  of attempting to control speech are precursors to attempts to control ideas first—-and then people and governments.  They are the actions and behaviors we expect and observe coming from the Communist Chinese in Beijing as they scheme  to control the pro-democracy uprising in Hong Kong a manifestation of the universal urge for freedom of expression.     We have it.  Don’t let them take it away.       

MODERN SOCIETY—THE PERFECT STORM OF GUN VIOLENCE

The “blame game” has started.  Cringeworthy politicians seeking only to raise their low-popularity numbers have begun an ill conceived campaign to blame the President for the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.  But these tragedies  have been with us for many decades and (unfortunately)  have become as American as apple pie.  The nation that put a man on the moon, can’t seem to solve the problem of keeping its citizenry safe from the constant stream of mad-men wielding lethal battlefield weapons to kill in places where innocent civilians congregate.

As well as having the biggest  most powerful military, the most vibrant economy, the highest GDP and more...America is also (sad to report) the gun violence capital of the world.  Over the last several decades we have experienced what one might be called the perfect storm of gun violence. This cyclone of death is NOT  the result of actions of one person—in the Oval Office—but the result of the confluence of  multiple factors: social, technical as well as political ones. All of these factors played out in an environment of easy access to lethal firearms—designed for  battlefield use.

The recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas  and Dayton, Ohio occurring within a span of less than 24 hours has shocked and saddened us all.  But these tragedies  are not  isolated or unprecedented events. Far from it.  Mother Jones (August 5, 2019) provides a list.  Here are a few I picked out: 1982 (Welding shop Shooting) 1984 (San Yisdro), 1991 (Killeen Texas), 1993 (Garden City NY) 1994 (Columbine HS, Littleton, Colorado), 2007 (Virginia Tech Massacre), 2009, (Fort Hood Texas) 2012 (Aurora, Colorado) 2013 (Wash DC, Navy Yard) 2015 (San Bernardino) 2016 (Orlando Fl nightclub) and more.  Thus this is not a novel or recent phenomena.  No it is not related to global warming or to President Donald Trump’s call for a sensible solution on the southern border.   That border crisis is one that the Democrats for two years decried as “fake” and allowed to fester, so as to use it as a political bludgeon against the GOP and President Trump.  If any one is responsible for inflaming the nation’s sensibilities regarding that issue we can lay it at the feet of the Democrat Party.  But that issue is a red herring with no relationship to either Dayton or El Paso.  The circumstance that ententes the tragic events in those two cities were were generated decades ago, in the halls of Congress rather  than our southern border.

There are several factors which have come together in the USA to create the perfect storm for gun violence.  They include a society which prides itself on “rugged individualism”,  one in which there has been a  precipitous decline in the traditional family unit, (and the humanizing social values of that societal element).  Other factors are the rise of digital technology which in its various  forms  such as violent video games,  sexist rap music,  pornography which degrades objectifies and dehumanizes women, and an “entertainment” industry which glorifies violence and sexual perversion, war, and mass murder.  Not to be ignored is the nation’s political and economic system which in its dependence of big business donors has hollowed out the middle class, shipped well paying jobs off-shore and abandoned large segments of the heartland and its working class population.  And finally, but most importantly, we are a nation flooded with battlefield style weapons of war, that anyone with the cash to purchase one —can do so weather they are insane deranged, disturbed or exhibit apparent and immediate criminal intent. 

But it is not access to weapons alone that has caused our problem.  Today our society focuses on “self fulfillment” and ignores its responsibility to the next generation. . Today there are more and more children who grow to maturity outside of a stable, secure and loving family.  They face the difficult prospect of development into adults without the guidance and love of both a mother and father in their lives. (In 1960  73% of children lived in a traditional family, today less than half —46%—do.  See: Pew Social Trends 2012 pewsocialtrends,org). In our times , the majority (54%) of our children  are raised in less stable and secure circumstances and as a consequence are more prone to poverty, ill health, lower self-esteem, psycho-social  dysfunctions, decreased educational and vocational success as well as greater likelihood for criminality and psychological illness. . As a society, rather than encouraging circumstances that lead to stability and well-being for our children—, ours accepts social instability.  The consequences of this are that more and more  individuals fall into destructive habits and circumstances, making them more likely to evolve into hardened adults who have little empathy for others.

Like the Dayton, Ohio shooter (no name should be attributed to him) some of these individuals  are drawn to partake in dehumanizing and debased behaviors which exacerbate the circumstances of unstable and insecure upbringing.  This person—the Dayton shooter— played in a pornoband, generating so-called porno “music”.   Participants of this genre of “music” freely admit that it “functions to purposely degrade and debase human behavior”.   Those that observe and take part in these acts of dehumanization are clearly desensitized by their actions  to the point that in time they are likely to play out in real life their degraded fantasies.  Some like the 2017 Las Vegas mass murderer (and it seems the Dayton event) were also clinically depressed by their life styles,  but did not have the courage to do the act. To end their lives  they orchestrated a mass death—-and suicide.

Hollywood, the mass media and the video game industry all are complicit in creating sounds and imagery and stories that function to desensitize and dehumanize and to shock and to objectify and degrade women and the sex act.  These so called industries claim that such destructive images and ideas are “art” and have the protection of our laws—and have no effect on violent human behavior which mirrors the very acts portrayed.  Numerous studies make these claims.  But common sense and tells us otherwise.  We are a nation swaammped by films, sounds, “music’ images and electoinc games and images which are popular with children and which inure viewers  to violence and death dealing instruments as they encourage violence.

A political and historic fact is that we have a Constitution which guarantees our  citizens the “right to bear arms”.  I must add this aside The arms that our founders were familiar with when that Amendment (Second)  was written were single shot muzzle loading black powder weapons with a rate of fire of three rounds per minute. But that rate was possible only after long training.  Others, new recruits, might get off only one round per minute.  Today’s battle field style weapons (like the AK 47) could be fired at a rate of 600 rounds per minute (for a short time) even by a novice who had just minutes before purchased the weapon.  These instruments were designed for battlefield use—with minimally trained soldiers. They were meant to be lethal even in the hands of a novice. Obviously our Founders Did not have these weapons or the density of our population in mind when they formulated and wrote the Second Amendment.

So all that was needed for the volatile mix was easy access to lethal weapons of mass destruction the sad fact that our nation is flooded with an arsenal of rapid fire military style weapons. In the USA there are 1.2 guns for every man woman and child in the USA.  The above factors set the stage for violence and the access to guns completes the arc to mass shootings.

What can be done?  How about a moratorium on violence on TV, on film and the horribly violent video game industry?    Make more efforts to support family life.  Children must grow up in secure, stable and loving families.  We must confiscate and ban all battlefield style weapons.

Finally there are those among us who simply are too unstable to own or use a weapon of any type.  These should be excluded from buying, owning or using a weapon.

This is hot reocket science..  It can be accomplished. If we are all afrad to go into a Walmart store, we are at the stage where something has to be done.

FREE STUFF FROM DEMOCRATS—A LOOK AT FUNDING

Where would the funds come from for the Democrats “free stuff”?

Some basic facts about our economy:

At the present time (August 2019) the USA GDP (gross domestic product) is estimated to be roughly $20 trillion dollars.  That is: 20 thousand piles of greenback in which each pile comprises one billion dollars.  The GDP is a measure in dollars of the value of all the goods and services  the nation produces in all of its business activities in a year.  The USA is the leader in this category.  For comparison China’s GDP is about $ 13 trillion US dollars, Japan about $5 trillion, Germany about $4 trillion.  Our GDP number places us at the very top of all the nations in the world.  

In order to protect the country and its citizens and carry on the essential business of state, the US government in Washington DC  taxes individuals and businesses based on their income.  US Federal revenue for 2019 is expected to be about $3.6 trillion dollars.   Thus we tax our businesses and individuals on average roughly at about 1/5 of our GDP.   

However, exigencies arise and plans are often unrealized so it is also estimated that at the end of the fiscal year we will have spent about $4.6 trillion dollars or about $1 trillion dollars more than we took in as revenue.  Yes that is correct.  We will spend about $1 trillion dollars that we do not have.  That figure —one trillion—is what is known as the “annual federal deficit”.  

These annual deficits are common and just as you might expect—they accumulate.  If, as in any working class house hold. no  one puts away money in the “cookie jar” for the rainy day and spend the family’s  entire revenue—there would be nothing left tp pay off debts.  In that “spend thrift” house hold debts would tend to accumulate from year to year.  

Over the years and decades the US government has almost always run a deficit.  As a result the annual deficits (except for a few years in the ‘90s) have accumulated to the present time to  about  $20 trillion dollars. This amount is known as the federal debt.  And as you may have noticed, that deficit is about equal to our GDP.  

Thus we owe to our bond holders and other entities we are indebted to about the same amount as the value of all of goods and services  that we as a nation produce annually.  

To service that debt in 2019 it cost the USA about $400 billion dollars.  That is money that we have to pay to our bond holders for using their money.  If we keep up with our spending habits as they are—some estimate that by 2028–in less than a decade—that amount will rise to close to one trillion dollars.  Get the idea?

According to several sources as well as the authors of the plan it would cost about $3 trillion dollars annually to implement the Warren-Sanders medicare for all health care plan. 

Where can we possibly get the funds to spend such an amount?

What about the other free stuff?  Where would the funds come to fund—the Green Revolution, free college for all, reparations for slavery, or health care for illegal immigrants, etc. etc. etc.  

We must keep in mind that we currently spend nearly one trillion dollars of tax revenue annually on wars, military hardware, care for veterans and salaries and maintenance of the largest military in the world and the 800-900 military bases we maintain world wide.  But even if we were to defund the entire military effort and divert one third of our tax revenue to medical care for all we would not have the funds for the healthcare program the progressives envision.  The other plans would also go begging.  

So clear;y these Warren Sanders ideas are “pie in the sky”.  

We could raise taxes or defund our military.