The National Debt And Deficit Solved.

       Did you know that our national debt is half owned by foreign countries? Which means that about half is owned by American investors. Which means we owe our own people half of the money we owe. But America is owned by Americans. That means we owe ourselves half of our debt. If we owe ourselves that money, then we really don't owe it. So we can easily cut our debt in half and it wouldn't cost us a dime to do it. That leaves just two questions. First question is, how do we eliminate that half of the debt? And second is how do we eliminate the other half?
       One question at a time. If we owe ourselves half the debt, we can cancel out that portion of the debt by simply paying off that portion of the debt.  Now you may ask how we could afford to pay off that much money all at once? That's another question, but I'll answer it anyway. If we raise taxes on debt payoffs of investments by the amount we paid out, the tax income would cancel out the debt payout.
       The second question is a bit harder to answer. And the answer is a little harder to swallow. Unlike Greece and the other members of the European Union, we use our own money. We also print our own money when the need arises, such as when paper money gets worn out and needs to be replaced. We could just as easily print enough money to pay off our foreign debt.
       What that would mean is that our money would be worth less. That would have consequences both good and bad. Foreign made products would become more expensive, but American goods would become cheaper in other countries. That's true unless other countries did the same thing in retaliation. But if they retaliated, then things could get back to normal. Not that normal is good.
       At any rate the debt would be eliminated. Then to compensate the investors we paid off, for any inconvenience, we could afford to give them a tax cut. That's because of all the money we would be saving in interest payments on our debt. Ya see? Answers are simple, if you don't mind the answers.

A Tale Of The Whining in The Wind.

       Listen! Listen close. Do ya hear it? Can you hear all that whining? It's on the wind. It's in the country and in the cities. All that whining is about a Financial Transaction Tax levied by eleven countries in Europe. But it effects any transaction involving any company or bank or anything else from those countries. Which means it's spreading all over the world.
       Investors aren't taking this lying down, I can tell you that much. Instead of lying down, they're running around whining. It means they have to pay a small amount every time they buy or sell a stock or bond involving any entity from those countries. I can tell you this much. They don't like it. Not one little bit. Which tells me, it's probably a good idea. In fact, the louder investors squeal, the better the idea sounds.
       Look, it's not that I want anyone to be unfairly targeted by taxes. In fact I think this is just the kind of tax that targets the widest demographic with the wear-with-all to actually pay a tax. Let's face it. The poor don't have enough money to pay any tax, and the middle class is disappearing before our eyes. That only leaves the wealthy. And it's the wealthy that mostly are involved with buying and selling financial transactions.
       True, there are pension plans and individual retirement plans that get involved in international financial transactions, but they mostly affect the upper middle class and wealthy. And it's not like I dislike the wealthy. I still hope to become one of them. As soon as I win the lottery. But income gaps keep on growing. Through the recovery of the Great Recession, the top one percent saw income growth of about eleven percent, but the other 99 percent have been blessed with a half a percent decrease in income.
       So financial transaction taxes target the only people who have been treated to the increases and forgives those who haven't. Of course you're bound to hear that argument that this is class warfare. Actually the class warfare is the eleven percent growth against the half percent decrease. The wealthy are still the only ones to see the end of the Great Recession.

Not Guns Again.

       Can you believe, we're still arguing about guns? Maybe it's time to come to some agreements. I don't think any sane American thinks all guns should be disallowed. I don't think any sane American thinks all ammunition should be banned. Not even most. I don't think anyone believes anyone else who wants a gun should have to jump through a year's worth of hoops for permission to own or use a gun.
       Okay, that's a start. But now comes the hard part. I think most people think that a few, very few, guns and a very few types of ammo should be restricted, for the reason that they're more dangerous and least useful for any legal activity. And I would include large capacity magazines. Of course there are those who think that an assault rifle is good protection in the home. Nonsense. In a home, it's the worst protection, short of none at all, perhaps.
       If we'd like to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't be allowed to have a gun, background checks is the only way available to accomplish that feat. And even though it ain't perfect, it's still our best chance. And as time goes by, the chances improve. Only the NRA and some few kooks are against it. So where do you stand?
       No matter what, the worst thing we can do is to do nothing. That only insures more of what caused us to be talking about this in the first place. Violence, like sin, will always be with us. That doesn't mean we should just accept it. Buy a shotgun and get a good night's sleep. Then tell your Congressman and Senators to be sensible for a change. That's the really hard part.

The Recycling Woes.

       Have you mastered the recycling challenge yet? I admit I haven't. Why is it that some plastic is okay and some isn't? Why is clear and brown and blue glass okay, but green glass isn't? How do you tell which metals are more valuable than others? Ya know what I think? I think the makers of glass and plastic and metals never liked this recycling business. So as long as they have to do it, they're going to make it as hard to do as they can. We should all suffer.
       Look at plastics. There are thousands of types of plastic, maybe tens of thousands of types. So they stamp tiny numbers on the bottom or someplace. You have to know which numbers are okay. I never learned. That's because half the time I can't find that number on the plastic thing I don't need anymore. Usually an empty container. It's empty because I used all the stuff inside it. Even  when I can find the numbers, they're so small or invisible I can't read it. And don't forget, I never memorized the numbers.
       Why is it that they identify green with being a good steward, ecologically, but won't accept green glass. Brown is okay. Why is that? What's the difference between blue or brown and green? If green is bad, why do they make it? Don't those companies have the technology to make other colors? What about paper? Some like magazine paper, some places don't.
       Some places demand you separate everything, others only some things. The whole recycling thing is in need of a major overhaul. If recycling is so important, and I believe it is, why do they make it so exasperating to comply with all the different and varied rules? It really does seem like they don't want you to bother. Even though recycling has become a profit center for nearly all communities and for the recycling centers that receive, separate and ship to the companies that want and depend on all that recycled product.
       I think that all metals, glass, paper and plastic should be recycled. If it can't be recycled, it shouldn't be allowed to be made. Like all that shrink wrapping from toys and etc in stores. Maybe if they couldn't shrink wrap things, maybe there'd be more clerks around to go fetch it for you. That would put more people back to work. That would be a good thing.

A Cure For Healthcare Costs.

       I'm reminded of the mistake of getting sick or injured on a Friday. Bad mistake. If you need medical attention on Friday chances are you won't be able to get that attention until Monday. Especially if you have to go to the hospital.  Hospitals only operate on Monday through Thursday. Doctors offices never operated on Wednesdays. But for hospitals, it's the weekend. That's just the way it is.
       When you arrive at the hospital on a Friday here's the way it works. First you spend several hours getting checked in. It's not like a hotel where you sign your name and get your keys. Especially if you haven't gone through any pre-admission testing. Pre-admission testing could take as much as half a day. By then, all the testing and operating sections of the hospital are shutting down for the weekend. So no matter what your problem is, broken leg, heart attack or whatever, you're stabilized and put in the holding pattern.
       If you've ever experienced a delay in an airplane and have to spend time in a holding pattern  you at least know that you're gonna get out of that airplane sometime within that day or night. Not so with a hospital. You're there until Monday at the earliest.  That means you pay for room and board plus special care for two days while making no headway towards any improvement in your situation.
       After two days and thousands of dollars or potentially tens of thousands of dollars in billings, the hospital staff and corp of specialists are ready to get down to work on you. That is unless your particular specialist is unavailable on Mondays. In which case you will get to spend another day and night in suspended animation. But finally the appointed time arrives and you get to have done what could easily have been done two days earlier if they had folks on call like other 24/7 systems do.
       And you wonder why our healthcare costs keep mounting? Weekends are hospital's biggest single income producers. Half the staff has the weekend off, but you're still stuck there. And paying there.

China And Bulls.

       Many years ago there was a professional wrestler named Hans Schmidt. Hans was the bad guy wrestler. You know the type. He would do something not allowed when the ref couldn't see it happen but then claim he didn't do it.  Then when the camera was on him and the ref was behind him, he'd do it again and then claim "Clean, Clean." I'm reminded of him when China makes similar claims.

       Now this cyber espionage is taking place and the Chinese military is sneaking into nearly every facet of our government and industry. They're stealing our technology and government secrets. Hey I'm sure they know more about our government than the President or Congress does. But their standard claim is that they do not do anything unlawful. They're "clean, clean."

       This is the country that we keep hearing is such a good trading partner. We need them, so the sayings go. Well, yes, we do need to do business with them, but no we don't need to give them easy access to all our secrets. And here's the reason why; One of these days some Chinese scientist is going to figure out how to use all that data they stole from us.

       When our companies want to do business in China, they have to build manufacturing facilities in China and give them more secret technology. If a company wants to do business with China, they still have to turn over technology or they're out of luck. Ya know, if all these companies were smart, they'd say no to China. China would still need the products, China would still have to buy from American companies and from  other countries. China on it's own couldn't have figured out how to do the actual manufacturing without getting that info from us.

      It's time to wake up and smell the damned roses. We'd soon enough find out it ain't roses the Chinese are holding in front of our noses. Bulls provide what the Chinese are holding in front of our noses.

Mark Sanford, Man Of The Great Outdoors.

       Well, what's new on the political front? Oh, here's one.  Former Gov Mark Sanford of South Carolina has announced he's throwing his hat in the ring for the Congressional seat for Charleston. In his speech he said that he had made a mistake, like everyone does at some point in our lives. True enough, although most of us don't make quite as big a mistake as Mr. Sanford did, he is at least admitting it.
       You remember, he's the governor who decided to take a hike on the Appalachian Trail and somehow wound up in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  I had no idea how far that mountain range extended. Now in case you don't know, Argentina is somewhere between the South Pole and Brazil. I can see how easy it would be to get mixed up and instead of winding up on a mountain trail, you find yourself in Buenos Aires. See, if you think you've arrived at the local bus station but actually you're at the airport, it would be easy to get on the wrong bus, er, I mean the wrong plane. Even the extra long ride might not spark a question in your mind.
       And once in Buenos Aires, it's a simple mistake to hike to your girlfriend's house. And who would know where you are? All the news reporters would be out on the Appalachian Trail trying to get a human interest story from you. Little did they know that you had a real human interest. In your girlfriend. Hey, even your wife didn't know you weren't roughing it, or is that rough-housing it.
       So I'd say that, yes you did make a simpleton mistake by getting on the wrong means of transportation. And yes you did make a simple mistake of having a girlfriend on the side and yes you did make the mistake of trying to hide it. But you finally did the right thing by stepping down as governor and getting a divorce.
       So now he's born again and wants to make amends and serve the people and get paid doing it. I guess the question that needs to be asked is whether or not he's all done with mistakes for good or might there be another hike in his future. As a man of the wilderness, will he strike out again, this time to brave the wilds of the French Riviera or perhaps Bali Bali or will he stay home and just get paid by the people?