This just in: I can only report about what I hear on Fox news because I am unable to tolerate more than just a few moments of their propaganda.

What I’m hearing is this: The January 6th commission is a partisan attack job on Trump. It is unfair because Trump is not allowed to refute the claims being made. Also, the evidence being presented is just hear-say and not real.

So, let’s go through this a bit.

First of all, this is not a partisan (one party) commission. There are two Republicans on the committee and one holds the number 2 position on the committee.

Next, Republicans were invited to have more representation on the committee but the Republican leadership in the House refused.

Next, almost without exception, those testifying on TV are Republicans.

Next, a very large portion of the hearings are video recordings taken in full context. Also, copies of existing emails, memos and transcripts are being shown. This is not hearsay but rather hard evidence.

Next, several high profile Republicans had declined invitations to appear before the committee. Some are even defying subpoenas issued by the committee. They claim the commission is a one-sided witch-hunt but then decline to publicly and under oath, to set the record straight.

Several Republicans have responded to subpoenas and actually shown up only to take the 5th which means they refuse to testify because they may incriminate themselves.

Trump has complained about not getting equal air time. The committee has said, and I have seen them do this on live TV, that Trump can appear before the committee at any time. They will give him all of the time he wants. The only catch is…he has to be under oath.

Trump declined.

In short, there is no “other side” to the story. We are being shown the facts by the commission and all we hear from the other side is denials on Fox News which is a far cry from presenting facts while under oath.

Now, I don’t expect the above to change any minds. One Republican testified, “I have a friend that is very smart and he loves Trump. He thinks the election was stolen. I went through all of the issues, one-by-one to demonstrate what he was hearing was false and that the election was fair. In the end, he said he understood everything. When I asked if he still thought the election was stolen he said, “Yes, because in spite of your evidence, I believe in my heart that Trump won.” Note: This is my best recollection of what was said.

Now for a video.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have seen several online conversations about why people like and don’t like Trump. The consensus seems to be that they say, “We like his policies” without being able to name any policies. The other finding seems to be the unspoken, “I fear non-white and non-Christian people as well as people from other countries and Trump will openly fight to squash their place in society.” In other words, they are racists but don’t want to acknowledge this so they like Trump because he will openly do what they only think about but never act on. Racism by Proxy.

There is only one thing I like about Trump…he could get things done.

Now, before you go off on this statement, let me clarify. I don’t like the things he did but I do have to admit that he always seemed to find a way to get it done. Also, I don’t like the methods he used (trying to overthrow the government etc.) but he got things done.

So, me saying I like that he got things done is sort of like saying, “I like his tie.” The statement says nothing about how I feel he is the worst example of a human being I can think of and he has done more to bring down our country than any other person in the history of the world.

On the other hand, I like what Biden says. I seem to share his beliefs in many cases. I think he is a good person and really wants what is best for the country; putting country ahead of self in every instance.

Still, he doesn’t seem to be able to get things done. For example, the Supreme Court seems to be going down a list of Republican goals and ticking them off one at a time. I’m talking about abortion, gun control and the inclusion of religion into politics.

Biden can’t fix health care. He can’t get infrastructure passed. He can barely keep Europe on track when it comes to keeping Russia in check. I think he was slow to act on inflation, (not that he could have done much). I think he is checking boxes, much like the Supreme court (talk about gun control…check. Talk about abortion…check) but nothing is getting done.

Yes, he doesn’t get stuff done because of the opposition. But, the opposition does not always have to win. We are not a country that benefits when the minority rules. He has the House, the Senate and the presidency.

He needs to start getting shit done!

So, who do I like? Trump or Biden? I would take a broken toaster over Trump. If Biden is the best alternative, I take him in a heartbeat.

Now for a video…

This is one of the songs I dance to in the morning.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to the causes and cures for inflation. Some are more important than others. Some causes and cures that we want to avoid, exist only because we don’t have the political will to do the right thing.

Inflation, in its simplest form, exists because we are willing to pay more money for something that we once paid less for. We do this because we have to or we do this because we want to. It really doesn’t matter.

Why would we “have” to pay more? Usually there are two reasons for this. First, it could be that those controlling the production of some necessary good have made the decision to charge more. This occurs when a few control the production of something vital. Let’s call this Cartel. We pay more for this good in spite of the price increase. This “lack of impact” on demand by a price increase is a measure of the items “price elasticity.” Price goes up and demand remains constant means the produce has low price elasticity. Gas is a good example of this. We buy it no matter the cost. You may say, “I drive less and thus price has impacted me.” This may be true but energy costs don’t just impact individual driving. Energy costs control the costs of nearly everything you will touch today. You will still touch them, you will still buy food, you will still watch TV etc; regardless of the price.

The second reason we “have” to pay more is scarcity. As a product becomes more scarce, the price for that product will go up. Now, we can choose not to buy the product and this may lessen the meaning of “have” to pay. However, if we want an electric car and there are not enough of them to meet demand, we will “have” to pay more to move up in the waiting line for that car.

Scarcity and Cartel dictate that we will pay more. Paying more = inflation.

On the other side of the coin. Sometimes we are willing to pay more simply because the value of a given amount of money has dropped for us. When you have a little bit of money, maybe you eat a lot of Ramen Noodles. Then when you win the lottery, you eat steak and ice cream all day. The more money you have, the less each bit of that money means to you.

We are now in a long overdue phase of wage increases. Wages have been mostly stagnant for the last decade but now they are on the rise. People are making more and so, they are spending more. They are no longer holding onto their money as tightly as they once did because each dollar now has less value. This puts more and more money the economy. More money means that money is worth less…to the economy. Thus inflation.

The Federal Reserve has a tool to combat this. They raise the interest rate and thus people will borrow less money. This is very effective since we don’t only spend the money we earn. We also spend the money we borrow. Since it is now more expensive to borrow, people will borrow less and thus, the amount of money flowing through the economy is lower. This will slow inflation.

So, how would I fix this?

First of all, I’d keep making incremental increases in the interest rate. I expect the Fed to continue doing this for at least another year.

Secondly, I would open the borders. I don’t mean literally, throw open the gates. I mean make it easy for foreign workers to enter our country. Don’t make them all citizens but somehow make them tax-paying contributors to our economy. If we want to unclog the production bottlenecks that are causing the “scarcity component” of inflation, we need the labor. Let them in. Politically, neither political party is interested in solving immigration. This is too convenient an issue to blame on each other. However, we can create growth without boundless wage growth which contributes to inflation. For example, and I am only making this up on the fly: An immigrant is granted a worker visa. They can stay in the county for as long as they hold a job. They pay taxes which fund schools and medical costs and such. Their wages, as a immigrant worker, can be no more than 90% of a worker that is a citizen. They can also make up no more than 10% of any given workforce. In this way, we are not taking away jobs and we are allowing for wage growth with some dampening effect.

Lastly, hold the feet of energy companies to the fire. They have spend decades getting subsidies. Stop that cold. Put an upper limit on profits. Yes, this is putting a control on a capitalist industry but, its for the greater good. In fact, we do this sort of thing all the time.

Or, we can do nothing. Don’t raise interest rates because we don’t like that. Don’t increase the size of the national labor pool because those new people are not white. Don’t regulate an industry because you think unregulated capitalism is a good thing (spoiler: It’s not).

We can always do nothing.

“Nothing happens until something moves.” Albert Einstein

Now for a video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Every state agrees that Trump lost the election. More than 60 court filings that challenged the election have been thrown out due to lack of evidence. Investigators hired by Republicans found no evidence. Trump’s inner circle, including his family members and the Attorney General all agree that Trump lost the election. About this…there can be no doubt.

So, everyone knows that Trump lost the election. Let’s take this as a fact, which is it. AND, knowing that everyone knows, what does it mean when…

Trump claims the election was stolen. He knows it wasn’t. Everyone told him so and there is no evidence. So, when he tells you this, he knows he is lying to you. Furthermore, he expects you to be outraged and in support of his complaint. The bottom line is that he is in direct violation of the Constitution.

When a congressman or senator tells you this even though they know its untrue, they have two goals: (1) They are pandering for the support of those that can’t accept that a fair and democratic election resulted in their guy losing and (2) They want to use the prospect of fraudulent elections to create laws that will restrict the opposition from voting. What they are really saying is that the Constitution only matters when they win.

When Republicans tell you they believe the election was stolen, they know they are lying. What they are really saying is, “I don’t support a democracy where my opinion isn’t the popular opinion.” While this is an anti-constitutional stance, they will be the first to demand their right to own unregulated guns no matter how many school shootings there are.

Everyone knows the election wasn’t stolen.

Everyone that tells you it was stolen is lying about it. They are lying right at you.

Note: I say “everyone knows” when there is a portion of the population that doesn’t bother to check on anything and rallies behind whatever they want to be true as if it was actually true.

Now a video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim