Shut Down the Bases

I read this morning that the EU is planning to retaliate against the U.S. for the new tariffs. Trump would be justified in initiating a withdrawal of U.S. troops and equipment from all military bases in Europe. Let the Europeans pay for 'em. The cost-savings can be used to compensate any American businesses hurt by the European tariffs. It is likely that the cost-savings would greatly exceed whatever is lost on Europe's new tariffs. If the U.S. did not get itself involved in so many overseas conflicts, conflicts that do not really involve us, we could save hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Maybe Europe can start paying for their own defense, as they should have been doing all along, instead of leeching off of the American taxpayer.

China and Europe

All those U.S. companies that invested billions, not in America, their homeland, but in China, a communist dictatorship--they deserve to lose their investment. A trade war with China would be just the thing to bring justice to their share price. Apple could lose half its value overnight. Steve Jobs, the one with the misnomer for a last name, hated America with an unholy passion, and he was the one that sent all the jobs overseas. If China is so great, then these CEOs need to move over there, and live in Beijing and see what that is like. I bet after a couple decades actually living in China, they may come around to seeing why America is a good place to live.

As for Europe, it may be that their leaders don't want to negotiate an end to the high tariffs their countries impose on American products. It may be that they match Trump tit-for-tat in a trade war. If so, the U.S. should withdraw all American troops and shut down all the military bases in Europe, and see if they still feel it is wise to go their own way. Perhaps they can start trading with Russia, exporting 10% of their citizens for slave labor in Siberia in exchange for not getting invaded. Biting the hand that feeds you is never a good idea.

Europe's been euraping the U.S. for far too long on trade. Too many tariffs on American products, too many other barriers. They need to encourage American imports, not discourage them. Europe should be paying the U.S. trillions in protection money, to compensate the U.S. for the high cost of our military. We never did receive reparations for WW2, which was all Europe's fault. Europe is just a big whining baby, with greedy hands always grasping for more money. The Europeans need to apologize for their poor behavior at the G7 Summit, and develop a plan to make reparations to the U.S. for their decades-long unfair trade practices. Otherwise, U.S. markets should be closed to European products.

The U.S. has always been self-sufficient. There is nothing that the Old World has that the New World doesn't. I have always been puzzled by this tendency to look far overseas for goods and services, when there are so many natural resources and labor here in North America and also South America. The rest of the world can really carry on by themselves. The rest of the world is nothing but warfare, bickering, dictatorships, warfare, terrorism and stupidity. It is only in North and South America that one finds moderation and conditions amenable to business and long-term investment. This will become more evident over time, as those that invested in China discover the folly of their way.

Tariffs

I don't believe all the crap I read in the news media about the tariffs and the trade war. Truth is, the media and the elite hit the snooze button while America burned. Factories closed, cities fell into ruin and decay, and nowadays, many millions of American working people juggle multiple part-time gigs just to get by, never mind saving for retirement or having any medical insurance. The elite could give a crap about workers. Sure, they are against any trade war, against any tariff that may impact their stock investments. To hell with all of them, they deserve the ruin they wrought upon others.

The United States requires zero trade with other countries. No trade is not such a bad scenario for us. These United States have sufficient natural resources. No goods need be imported, ever again. The other countries can bicker and squabble among themselves, and China can continue employing their slave labor and polluting their cities. Everything that is needed can be produced here in the U.S. of A. If other countries want to get in to this lucrative, wealthy market, well then, perhaps they can just hurry their behind over to the bargaining table.

The Demise of Unions

It is amusing to watch U.S. companies grovel before the Chinese Emperor. Gap, Marriott, and all of these huge multinationals obey Chinese censorship, even when selling products in the U.S. Interesting. All it takes is power.

Who cares what Americans think?

The working man used to have power, when he gathered together to form unions, but the smart folks brainwashed the masses, to make them think unions are bad. In the end, working people lost a great deal--benefits, job security, and salary. And that's not ever going to come back, because without unions, workers can be treated just any which way. If the American worker gets too uppity, then companies need merely to shift production to China. Who really cares what Americans think? What's important is what the Chinese Emperor thinks.

Now China owns both our politicians and the heads of companies and can get them to do whatever it wants them to do. Everyone is scared to death of incurring the wrath of China. The writing is on the world--U.S., has-been, washed-up relic of something that used to be. China, ascendant master of the Universe, with just a matter of time before it seizes Taiwan and other territorial ambitions. Is democracy doomed? Probably. If the best that the U.S. can do is put up a dolt like Trump, then the best is behind us. The U.S. got tired of smart (Obama), so settled for its opposite. Twenty-plus trillion in debt, with no end in sight to the national debt, and quite likely to default on Social Security and Medicare obligations, the U.S. has betrayed the working people. Who cares? Working people have no power.

So Trump Axed the Iran Deal

So what? A big ho-hum from the American public, reason being that Iran has been a bad actor all around the world, showing its behind all the time to neighboring countries and expressing its desire to destroy the United States and everyone living here. I think Trump is probably right that the time has come to nix the deal. The deal was worth a try. In theory, Iran could have accepted the olive branch and changed its ways, modernizing its economy and its system of government. Certainly, Iran would have been welcomed back into the community of nations, after establishing trust. Instead, Iran has chosen poverty, ignorance and backwardness. And that is what they will get. Time to stop hearing about Iran, it is just another horrible, backward country that no one would ever want to visit, where oppression, censorship, torture and misery are the norm.

As for nukes, if Iran goes nuclear, so do the other countries in the Middle East. It was only a matter of time anyway. The dam was sure to break. If North Korea has nukes, then Iran was sure to get them, one way or another, quite possibly from a North Korean submarine, sold in exchange for oil, food, and gold. Of course, the Iranians would pay just about any price for the weapon they so desire, billions, even. It is rather precious to suppose that a treaty and inspections can prevent a massive, well-funded intelligence apparatus from obtaining nuclear missile technology. I have no doubt Iran will eventually get nukes. Then catastrophe is simply a matter of time. The Iranians can always rationalize that Allah will reward the faithful after pressing the button. That's how the Islamic terrorists think, before they blow themselves up.

In truth, the most likely scenario is global nuclear war at some point in time. Everybody seems to want to jump on the nuke wagon. All these stupid boys have to play with dangerous toys. For the same reason, real boys play with firecrackers. Just the desire to make things go boom. Stupid, mindless leaders in North Korea, Iran. What bigger boom than a nuke?

The key is to prepare for the Apocalypse, to salt away knowledge and learning, that it not be forgotten, and, if desired, to try to survive what comes next--probably, nuclear winter, a mini-Ice Age, as Carl Sagan predicted. At any rate, most of the Earth's surface will probably become radioactive or otherwise uninhabitable for a time. It may even be that H. Sapiens will die out, and there will be no intelligent life left to blog about the state of the world. In which case, you know, too bad. I rather think a degenerative mutant species will dominate composed of individuals somewhat resistant to radiation.

As for me, I had my time in the Sun, and it was fun, for the most part. My hope is that I live out the remainder of my days before the end, but if I do see the end, I imagine there will be a certain satisfaction in knowing I'm among the last to know the civilized, modern world as it once was in all its glory. Luckiest of all will be the really old folks. They will have savored a complete measure of life before the catastrophe.

Republicans Have No Class

Honestly, some Republicans are acting like trash. McCain is dying, and they criticize his guest selection for his own funeral? Zero compassion. That explains Republican ideology 100%.

Assumed Racism

The brouhaha over two black men arrested at Starbucks seems much ado over nothing. It is well-known, at least by anyone with experience in the world, that coffee shop owners are not in the business of providing a free meeting space or, for that matter, free restroom facilities to the public. No, they are in the business of selling coffee. No one, black or white, who sits at a table without buying anything is going to be welcome, ever. Of course, the two black men, instead of acknowledging this obvious fact, have opted, quite naturally, to maximize their media exposure and, hopefully, profiteering over the whole incident, which was entirely their own fault. Had one of them simply purchased a $2.85 coffee, none of this would have happened. The manager would have perceived them both as paying customers and ignored them. Instead, they opted to freeload off Starbucks and exploit it as a meeting place, without paying a nickel for anything. Of course, their self-inflicted problems are all the fault of bad, racist whitey. Close 8,000 stores nation-wide immediately to scold the baristas and teach them not to expect blacks to pay for anything. Yes, that's the way to handle it. This is exactly the type of thing, incidentally, that causes white folk to vote Republican in large majorities. Punish white people for being human, for expecting paying customers in their store.

Racists used to be a really bad word, back in the day. When whites are castigated as racists on the national media every day for quite ordinary and common-sense activities, the term "racist" loses its cachet. In today's society, "racist" simply means human. What we have learned from Starbucks is that expecting people to pay for services rendered, that is racist.

Occam's Razor

In the recent Russian nerve agent assassination, Occam's Razor indicates Russia is culpable. The nerve agent was manufactured by Russia and is only known to exist in Russia. Putin is a liar; to lie is nothing to him. Putin controls Russia as a de facto dictator. Putin wanted the ex-spy living in London to die of spectacular and macabre symptoms. Thus, the simplest, and therefore most likely, scenario is Putin ordered the poisoning. Any other theory relies upon further complexity and far-fetched possibilities. All the lies being generated by the Russian state may be ignored without further consideration. Russia can be assumed guilty, under any circumstances, until proven innocent, because Russia under Putin is evil.

Putin is playing with fire, skirting along the edge of war. The fool may miscalculate at some point, to his peril. It is unfortunate that the rest of us have to live on the same planet as Putin. He is in a similar category as Hitler and Stalin, his two heroes. That such a fool is in charge of a nuclear-armed state is a big reason to be pessimistic about the future of H. Sapiens. The odds that H. Sapiens will survive the nuclear age are about one in a million.

Hand-wringing over Tariffs

It is amusing to watch the media's gyrations against tariffs and the looming trade wars. For years, the elite sat back and partied their butts off, enjoying getting rich off the backs of unemployed Americans. Meanwhile, working people in the U.S. suffered. Factories shuttered, towns got destroyed, whole cities like Detroit turned into hellholes, where homeowners were lucky to get any amount at all for their homes. Working people turned to the "gig economy," earning minimum wage or less with no benefits at all. The elite didn't care. They talked about "free trade," "the global economy," and gushed over the stock market's performance. Yeah, who cares about the working people? They can die, right? They should stop having babies, eh?

When I read that tariffs don't work and trade wars are all bad, I just don't believe it. I think that is a lie. The U.S. imports far more than it exports. We still have the biggest economy. So, any country having a trade war against us is going to lose financially. And, in the end, the U.S. does not need any international trade at all. We are an entirely self-sufficient country, with enough natural resources and people to produce whatever we need. Stop all trade, is a good idea, for several generations, and then automatically we will be a strong competitor again, producing anything and everything. Meanwhile, China can stockpile all the junk it produces and build a mountain with it and name it after their dictator.

Funny how otherwise liberal-minded folks cozy up to foreign dictators and think everything is just hunky-dory that we are letting them have so much wealth, while so many of our own people are just getting by working for Uber.

Asylum

The only folks that should seek asylum in the U.S. are those on our border. Canadians and Mexicans, logically, should have the right to seek asylum in the U.S. Maybe those in the Carribean, too, and that would include Cuba. Anyone else is just shopping for a better financial life. People in the Middle East need to look at the neighboring countries around that region. There is no need to fly all the way over to North America. That is a nonsensical stretch of logic and abuse of the asylum system. Anyone that comes here from outside of North America needs to be sent back to wherever they came from, if their only claim is based on asylum. Other countries are better prepared to assume immigrants. The U.S. suffers from unemployment and underemployment. When so many of our people do not even have basic medical insurance or retirement plans, then this is no time to take in more people.

National Public Radio

Every time I turn on NPR, I hear whining. I have gotten so that I can't stand NPR. All it ever talks about is politics, the latest Trump brouhaha or how awful white people are. Where is the science, history and culture? I thought NPR was supposed to be educational. Instead, it is just the liberal propaganda machine. And it doesn't work very well at the intended purpose. If racism is such a huge problem that it deserves all the NPR coverage, even in 2018, then it will never get fixed. I think the constant pointing of the finger at whitey is the main problem. The only real racism we see today is against white people. White people are presumed guilty, by mere fact of being white, regardless of their political beliefs, and never permitted to demonstrate their innocence, under any circumstances. Meanwhile, take a look at what has happened over in Zimbabwe, for an example of a black-majority country.

I think that NPR should focus more on science and education, because there is a real hunger and need for that. Just pressing the enrage button constantly makes people miserable and dumbs people down. I wonder what good NPR is, if that is all it ever does.

Amazon

Look at what people do, not what they say. For years, Amazon's CEO has been hyped as this great liberal figure, but in reality, Amazon treats its employees like dogs, skimping on air conditioning, salaries and benefits, and underpays the U.S. Postal Service, and gets away without paying taxes in most sales. Admittedly, the U.S. Postal Service is run by fools, all of whom should be fired for undercharging Amazon all these years. The price to deliver packages needs to be increased not today, but ten years ago. Bribery is the most likely reason the USPS has given Amazon such a princely gift, worth billions. Someone in management is being paid off. As for Amazon not paying sales tax, it should be charged, not just for future sales, but for all the past sales that it failed to charge sales tax. That would solve the financial problems of most local and state governments. Perhaps Amazon's corporate management can sacrifice their personal home and wealth to pay off the back taxes.

So this is the real reason that Amazon's owner is hyped as this great big genius. In reality, he is just a selfish, cruel tycoon very willing to take advantage of anyone and everyone. He is farther right-wing than Trump. Trump is a liberal next to Amazon. The only reason Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post was to use it as a tool against Trump, because he feared that the U.S. government might act against Amazon's selfish interests. Well, it should. Congress should pass legislation to make sure that the Postal Service is paid, not just what it needs for current costs, but to ensure that Postal employees are getting the health benefits and retirement savings that they need long-term. Postal employees are temps with no benefits, work long hours and suffer long-term hearing loss from their dilapidated jeeps. Congress should see to it that Amazon pays its fair share to local and state governments, who have been short-changed for years. How is the government supposed to get funding, when people are buying everything from Amazon and not paying a dime of sales tax?

Trump was Right about Africa

Africa is composed of s-hole countries. Are there exceptions? No, can't name a one. The latest news from the one supposedly advanced country, Kenya, is that their high court ruled they won't conduct forced anal exams of gay men. Wow, big progress. Just a bunch of savages in Africa. The amount of immigration from the blighted continent should be zero or negative. The only thing Africa contributes to the world is a hand. A hand out, that is, and always asking for more.

But I'm sure it's all the fault of whitey.

Crapple Claims It Is Made in America

Crapple's CEO claims Crapple builds its junk in the U.S. If that were even half-true, then the Iphones would say "Made in U.S.A.," but they don't, they say "Made in China." A tariff on Crapple imports would be the right approach to making Crapple change its ways. It is a Chinese company, not an American one, and should be treated as Chinese. If a company does not hire American workers, then it is not an American company, and its products are imports.

The Eternally Ungrateful E.U.

If the E.U. really retaliates on the steel and aluminum tariffs that Trump enacted for the sake of national security, we should begin preparations to withdraw all troops and military material from Europe. One hour after that announcement, any retaliation would disappear. Indeed, Europe should be paying for its own defense. American taxpayers have subsidized Europe's defense for decades, allowing Europeans to have a social safety net far better than U.S. citizens. Trump would be justified in exacting tribute from every European country, to the tune of many hundreds of billions per year. It is not right that the U.S. taxpayer pays only so that the European gets six weeks of vacation per year, free medical care from cradle to grave, early retirement and free education.

What Europe needs is another world war on their soil, to teach their people gratitude. They seem to have forgotten who pulled their delicate bits out of the fire.

European countries are arming fascist Turkey right now to crush the democratic, LGBT-friendly Kurds in Syria. European nations just don't have any scruples; they will do anything at all for money. They don't care that the U.S. protects them against annihilation, unless we start sounding serious about withdrawing that protection. That would be a wake-up call for the stupid Europeans, whose knee-jerk anti-Americanism is prevalent all throughout their public discourse. It is fashionable in Europe to dismiss the very people who protect Europe from annihilation. "Fat, stupid Americans," eh? Yeah, we're stupid, because we have been paying for their defense all these years, getting zero in return. And the U.S. has about the worst medical system in the entire developed world.

Oh, No! A Professor Speaks Out

I read about Prof. Amy Wax's disparaging of black college students. In essence, she simply said that black students underperformed academically, but then she went on to point the finger at presumed causes--not genetic or racial, mind you, but cultural--rap music culture and the like. I think it is important to listen to what people are saying before jumping to conclusions about their ideology. Professors tend to carve out idiosyncratic world-views that borrow a bit of this, a bit of that, here and there. It is seldom correct to pigeon-hole them. But people are obsessed with labels, because they hate thinking.

There probably is merit to her observation, which was not denied, regarding underperformance among black students. Who benefits by her pointing out this discrepancy? Actually, if I were a black student, her words would serve as a spur to prove her wrong. Indeed, utter the inconvenient truth, say that the Emperor has no clothes. Truth is refreshing, liberating, and once truth is known, people can act based upon what they know. Prof. Amy Wax could potentially be the best friend of a high-performing black student. What she is demanding is better performance. She has not said that black students are incapable or biologically inferior at all, and they are not. She has said that rap music culture is brain-dead, and it is. Rap music prepares a mind to commit violent crime. Period. This is irrefutable, and there are tons of blacks in prison today, producing nothing, contributing nothing. A black student listening to Tchaikovsky, reading books, writing poetry, playing chess, and studying diligently--well, that would be a different kettle of fish, wouldn't it? I think that Prof. Amy Wax would be taken off her guard and might even write a recommendation letter for such a student.

The knee-jerk reactions of people in academia are insipid and do cause a reaction from the right. In the end, there is noise and little light.

Now, someone may say, but Igor! What if you were a college student that had to deal with a homophobic professor! Wouldn't you want him / her fired? Well, that did happen to me. I took two courses in microbiology from a very politically active, Republican (of course), right-wing, rabidly homophobic professor who equated homosexuals with pedophiles. She occasionally used the classroom as a platform for her views, although she was limited in this regard, because we had so much microbiology to cover that we had little time for extras. She had to contend with hundreds of pages, and it was a terrible confinement upon her clear and powerful desire to drone on and on about socially conservative politics, against the Godless liberals that wanted to normalize sexual perversion. Nevertheless, I liked microbiology and found her explanations of it tolerable and performed at the top of her class. I even gave a presentation on a disease that was quite well-received by the class and her comments and A+ led me to conclude she liked me. It is often thus with politics; people do not relate the solid and visible of everyday life with the invisible abstract, the boogieman homosexual that she conjures up in her fevered thinking about politics and public policy. Thus people persist in misguided views and generalizations based upon little but jokes, fancies or rumors they heard long ago.

It is possible to "prove 'em wrong" and there is a satisfaction in doing so. Yes, people begin by believing such and such, but they are mistaken, and if you are right, you must demonstrate to them, by your actions, they are wrong, and must revise their opinions, that is, if they want to be true. Not everyone wants to be true, but a great many people do, and upon descending into their world with clear and tangible evidence of a contradiction, one delivers a challenge to change.

Pelosi on RuPaul

I have always admired Nancy Pelosi. That she is on one of my favorite shows, RuPaul, is something for me to look forward to. Pelosi functions as the conscience of a Congress that has problems mustering up compassion for the working poor, the sick and the vulnerable among our population. Congress spends too much time figuring out ways to help the rich get richer without any effort The rich must be awfully stupid, if they need so much help from the Federal Government to get even more billions on top of what they already have.

We Probably Do Need a Trade War

Trump's certainly correct that a trade war would be in U.S. interests, until the rest of the world stops exacting high taxes and barriers to American products. The reason so many of our people remain unemployed or underemployed in poorly paid, part-time jobs with few or no benefits and no retirement plans is that the rest of the world has been crucifying the U.S. on trade. Free trade is a great concept, but only the U.S. has been playing by the rules. The other countries block American goods at the border. This is why cities like Detroit are crime-ridden hell-holes. China is probably the worst offender, but the other countries certainly have problems as well. I think that Europe needs to start doing some soul-searching and stop raping the U.S. on trade. The U.S. can't foot the bill for everything for ever. Just because Europe is completely to blame for WW2, and the U.S. pulled their feet out of the fire and nursed their economies back to health, doesn't mean the U.S. is now the permanent nurse of Europe and has to give, give, give and never take. Trade needs to be equal, or else there does not need to be trade at all. I am sure that Europe has plenty of farmland to grow food, or else they can turn to Russia and ask for food, and maybe while they're at it, negotiate with the Russians as to surrender terms, and how many of their citizens need to be transported to slave camps in Siberia. Europe needs to think first of all about what they can do for the U.S., rather than imaginary obligations that the U.S. has to their ungrateful, bickering, backstabbing and freeloading societies. If the E.U. can't even keep calm, cool U.K. in the fold, it is not worth the paper their treaty is printed on.

Republicans and Corruption Go Hand in Glove

It is amusing that Ben Carson, respectable Black Republican, talks against welfare for the poor, but greedily grasps welfare for himself. He is not O.K. with a $5000 budget to redecorate his office. He needs $31,000, or an ordinary person's entire salary, in order to buy a fancy gold-plated chair, diamond-studded desk and so on. What a hypocrite, grabbing bread from a child's mouth to sell it off so that he can put a feather in his cap. Stealing from the government is the Republican way. They talk against welfare for working people, then they take welfare for themselves.

It seems every member of Trump's team has indulged themselves, enriching themselves and their families at the public expense. Indeed, why work? Just mouth a bunch of lies and make people believe, and you can make a killing just hanging on the coattails of the Liar-in-Chief. I imagine Ben Carson finds taking handouts from the government easier than difficult, risky neurology ever was. In fact, the same motive is behind all of Trump's henchmen.

What we need is a good Democrat to go in and drain the swamp! Sell off the gold-plated chairs and expose all the excesses and theft of the entire Trump Administration.

Is the U.S. Doomed?

The United States will one day be one great big desert, with slave camps for all its people, who will be used as body bags by foreign conquerors--fresh organs, blood, tissue. One reason is other countries take science seriously, like Japan with its new cure for flu. How come the U.S. did not come up with that miracle drug? What's the reason?

All that Trump wants to do is buy bullets and bombs to blast the ragheads in the Middle East from afar, just like every Republican since 1988. Other than that, no medical care for the poor, no science, no space exploration, no infrastructure. The U.S. decays from within, while the Republicans have a jolly good time running up the deficit in a race to see how fast they can bankrupt Treasury and deplete our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The number of young people interested in pursuing a career in actual hard science (not just computers and nursing) is abysmal and paints a picture of the slave camps that will stretch from California to Florida. Sex slaves and organ bags are what our defeated people will become, to whichever nation or group of nations takes science seriously enough to gather up the secrets to future tech. China has already stolen a great portion of our technology, due to our leaders being asleep at the switch. No one in Washington, D.C. cares about or even really understands cybersecurity or science. All they care about is bombing ragheads, looking tough, standing tall, and partying all night in their drunken reveries of arrogance over their temporary power in this world. They will be forgotten, just like the old Weimar politicians.

Time is not on our side. I wish the Republicans would think for one second how many Ph.D.'s are graduating in China as opposed to the U.S., and how many new discoveries are being made, not in the U.S., but in competitor nations. It is not just because of resolve or toughness that the U.S. won WW2. It is because of what? Because of science. Without science, there would have been no radar, no breaking Enigma, no advanced bombers, no nukes.

Instead of a stupid border wall, which is a great big admission of defeat in the failed war on drugs, the Chinese are building dams, internet, highways, universities. Instead of invading worthless cesspool countries, the Chinese are investing in factories.

Who is going to rule the world in the future? It won't be the U.S., twenty trillion in debt. Our economy collapses the moment investors wake up and realize the debt is never going to be repaid. Inflation will turn into hyperinflation, and no one will have any retirement savings.