Current Events, Political Comment, 5-27-2025, "SALT" deduction

 

Is a "SALT" deduction a way to get all Federal taxpayers to subsidize overspending by primarily blue state governments?

Does it primarily benefit the rich, that is less than 10% of the population earning greater than $200000 income annually?

Sounds like a Republicrat plan to men!!!

Bet you don’t hear Congress members complain about this from either political side!

They ain’t lookin” out for avarage Americans, not the poor or the the working class. I can hear them now “Oh, it will just cost them a little bit to help my friends (AKA donors)”.

No salt please...

Climate Change and Global Warming- Hinkleman’s Simplified (well kinda) Theory

 

Climate Change and Global Warming- Hinkleman’s Simplified (well kinda) Theory

The upper atmosphere, layers of gases many miles above the surface o the earth, act as an encasement like a slightly permeable green house ceiling.

In winter this encasement acts like an insulator keeping heat from going back into space.

In summer this encasement filters the radiant heat from the sun mitigating the heat.

Pollutants are slowly chipping away at this encasement allowing colder air masses in winter and hotter air masses in summer.

Three major that this creates are:

1. Hotter and hotter summers with stinging radiant heat from the sun as filtering of the upper atmosphere decreases.

2. Colder and colder winters as the insulating effect of the upper atmosphere decreases.

3. In spring and fall it is normal for weather to be violent as these cold and hot air masses collide. However, with enhanced cold air masses and hot air masses colliding, these storms will become bigger, more violent, and last longer into summer and winter.

I am guessing that scientists speculate that heat will eventually dominate and average temperatures on earth will increase, thus the term “global warming”.

Sorry that this is not a heart warming blog but it is consistent with what I see already happening.

I guess the good news is that we have opportunities to correct this if we work smart technologically, politically and social-economically. Even this problem doesn’t exist to the exclusion of other problems. We need to work together with a step by step plan that includes surviving today while planning and working toward where we want to be tomorrow- And sticking to that plan!

                                                  2025 Update to Electric Cars Blog 2022

At this point, I believe that the technology to produce hydrogen-electric vehicles is available.

Hopefully, we'll be seeing them soon.

Hydrogen production utilizing natural resources seems to me to be a very environmentally friendly methodology and a huge money maker.

Five-minute refills for an EV's hydrogen tank (or replacement) with long distance between refills sounds great to me.

A Hydrogen fuel cell (battery) that lasts over 100000 miles also sounds great.

Oh yes, also a hydrogen fuel cell will make EVs much lighter than current batteries.

A Hydrogen fuel cell is NOT just useful in cars. From boats, campers, houses, factories, AI- Hydrogen fuel cells have potential to change our entire power grid.

Comparing the Federal Budget to an Individual Taxpayer’s Home Budget

 

Comparing the Federal Budget to an Individual Taxpayer’s Home Budget

Recently I wrote about our U.S. economy, how far in debt we are and what it would take to dig ourselves out of debt. Yet until recently when some folks noticed how much we spend just on the annual interest on that debt did those folks become concerned.

So, to make this more understandable to people who don’t deal with political or financial terms, I’d like to make a household budget comparable to an individual’s personal household budget. So, let’s get started.

Total income for this individual is $63795. per year. Take home after taxes, Medicare, etc. $51904 per year.

Total calculated expenditures for the year $88172 (rent or mortgage, car, insurances, taxes, utilities, etc., oh, and interest on money that you’ve borrowed and not yet paid back (Total Loan $469385.98 Annual interest on loan without anything on the principle of the loan $15020)

So, basically what this is telling us is that we make $63795 ($51904 take home) this year but we’re going to spend $88172. That puts this individual $36268 further in debt.

Better get another loan*. So, next year you’ll be even further in debt. Soon no one will be willing to lend you any money. Actually, no one would have lent you money long before it reached near that much! But if multiplied proportionally to the annual income and debt of the U.S. government this is exactly the situation our government is in!!!

So, an individual would have two choices of what to do in this situation-

1. Increase income.

2. Decrease spending.

Well, believe it or not, these are the two options that our government has also.

So, how does the government do this.

1. Increase income- a. Tax your citizens more. Citizens are struggling enough without more taxes!

b. Grow the economy. Hey wait a minute. Isn’t this exactly what our president is trying to do? And a certain political party is trying to trip him up every step of the way. Do they care more about their party than the country? Do they hate our President so much that they want to sacrifice our country to make him fail?

2. Decrease spending- a. Decrease funding for all government funded programs by at least 20% in order to balance the budget. Eliminate programs if not absolutely necessary.

b. Eliminate waste and fraud. Hey wait a minute. Isn’t this exactly what our president is trying to do with DOGE? And a certain political party is trying to trip him up every step of the way. Do they hate our President so much that they want to sacrifice our country to make him fail?

The numbers in this article are not off the top of my head but are from published estimates.

*In government terminology “Better get another loan” equates “raise the debt ceiling”.

Why the United States doesn’t need Socialism- a different approach

Why the United States doesn’t need Socialism- a different approach

I could begin this paper writing about how socialism has never worked, how it drifts back to capitalism or worse to dictatorship. That’s it’s basically an outdated failed experiment.

BUT…

That’s not the basic reason that the United States doesn’t need socialism.

The United States, fundamentally, is a representative democracy by the people and for the people (sounds almost socialistic!).

Unions began here in the 1700s. Though unions had a rocky start, they have since become powerful representatives for the working class.

In the early 1900’s, our elected representatives began enacting labor laws to protect our working class from overzealous employers.

In 1938, a minimum wage was established.

As recently as the 1980’s, IRA’s and 401K’s were established that were not dependent on the survival of an employer’s business. These IRA’s and 401k’s today are heavily invested in the U.S. stock market. So, one of the primary goals of socialism, workers’ ownership of businesses, has been attained without socialism.

My message to progressives with socialistic leaning-

Please try working within this government, by the people and for the people, a government that allows you to pursue your dreams. Don’t expect things to be handed to you. WORK is the operative word. Success requires intelligence, work, ability to get along with others, and a dedicated effort (more work) everyday (except your day of rest).

My question for this day... 8-2-22

In the new testament, James 1:8 tells us that a “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Webster defines it this way. “DOUBLE-MINDED is wavering in mind : undecided, vacillating”

My question for this day..

Is a politician who claims to be Christian yet takes non Christian stands on issues double-minded?

SUPPLY AND DEMAND THEORY AND GAS PRICES TODAY 7-4-2022

Two take aways from the supply and demand theory.

If supply increases and demand stays the same- price decreases

If supply decreases and demand stays the same- price increases

So, let's look at the price of fossil fuel using the supply and demand theory.

Specifically, let's look at the price of gasoline at the pump, although fossil fuel has many more uses than gasoline.(1)

Gasoline pump prices at the end of 2020 were roughly $2.00 per gallon.

Gasoline pump prices in early February 2021 were roughly $3.20 per gallon (and were continuing to trend upward).

What changed?

Before Joe Biden became president, he promised to shut down the Keystone pipeline on Day 1 of his administration. He kept this promise. His administration also tightened the screws on all further fossil fuel exploration.

This started well before Putin invaded Ukraine.

Demand had not significantly increased.

Artificially decreasing supply of fossil fuel by shutting down major portions of the fossil fuel industry was and continues to be the overriding cause of the sky rocketing price of gasoline.

AND...

The exorbitant cost of gasoline is the overriding reason for the recession that we currently are experiencing.

Choking off the lifeline of the American economy is wrecking our economy. We may well find ourselves in a full fledged economic crash and an actual depression far worse than a recession! A depression can have much worse consequences globally leading to world wide conflicts worse than we are currently experiencing.

Do we need to move away from fossil fuels? YES.

However, two key elements are needed.

1. Better technology. Right now we lack the ability to replace fossil fuel with acceptable replacements. Wind and solar are NOT sufficient to support our current infrastructure. Add electric cars to this and we'd need wind mills and solar panels on every corner- literally! Imagine driving through our country and never losing sight of wind mills and solar panels in the cities, deserts, near ocean shores (in the water), mountain tops, great plains, National Parks, Washington State to Washington D.C., Hawaii to Alaska.

2. Patience. Phasing out fossil fuel and phasing in replacements (not necessarily wind mills and solar panels) takes time. How much time we have- I don't know.

(1) Fossil Fuel is not just gasoline. It's oil and grease to lubricate our cars, boats, jets, heat and air conditioning systems in your homes, machinery in factories, even your bicycle. It's also an ingredient in rubber and plastic products. From the time raw materials are taken from the ground purified, mixed with other materials, shaped into useable parts to the time they are put into use such as this computer I'm typing on, fossil fuels are required. Artificially decreasing the availability of this resource WITHOUT an acceptable alternative is an assault not just on oil companies but our entire economy, on our very lives!