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THE ENTERPRISE: WHATS WRONG WITH AMERICA? IT’S A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM, WORSENED BY NOISY MEDIA & MINORITIES THAT MISLEAD AMERICANS, WHILE WEAK, MISGUIDED LEADERS & BIASED POLLS MISINFORM VOTERS

WHATS WRONG WITH AMERICA? IT’S A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM, WORSENED BY NOISY MEDIA & MINORITIES THAT MISLEAD AMERICANS, WHILE WEAK, MISGUIDED LEADERS & BIASED POLLS MISINFORM VOTERS
Why do I get upset every time I watch the mainstream news. 
Because it’s dismal. Look at the numbers. Look at the behaviors! 
Consider the failures of leadership nearly everywhere. 
 
HERE’S THE CABINET OF JOE BIDEN (& KAMALA HARRI)S (https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet/). Does it make you proud?
 
1) It’s hard to find honest good news, because most news is filled with biases, lies and half truths to support the views of inept leaders, elected to run our country (and not to 'run it into the ground’) by over-spending money on DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) instead of Defense, Leadership and Progress!
 
2) Why do I blame Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, et. al. (the Democrats leading in Congress, mis-managing most of our large cities and states?) Because they are the ones to blame for widespread failures.  People are leaving in huge numbers to find places where leaders lead and don't make excuses for wasting taxpayer money on their misguided “Woke” philosophies, and inept performance.
 
3) Am I making this up? No! Biden is cognitively impaired and getting worse. Consider Biden’s cabinet; it is full of largely politically correct people chosen based not on competence, but on lack of relevant experience and plenty of political correctness. Best example: Kamala Harris is only one heart-beat away from the Presidency. It that doesn't terrify you, listen to her platitude filled, illogical speeches, punctuated with cackling laughter.
 
4) Biden’s cabinet is filled with mostly mediocre, or marginally incompetents like Buttagieg, Mayorka, Blinken, Granholm, and a "class of clowns," making excuses trying to proclaim/redefine/defend Biden’s failures as successes. A few examples: the Chaotic Border & immigration mess, rising Inflation being tamped down by Fed interest rates driving/recession risk, the inexcusable exit/escape from Afghanistan, and much more, all causing failures of USA stature on a global scale.  Biden keeps on saying "everything is fine,” as if that would make it so. It doesn’t.
=======================
 
POLLS ARE BIASED BY THE POLLSTERS QUESTIONS
Not only do pollsters questions bias the replies to pollster questions, but also the so-called random samples used are another form of added distortion!  Reported results are snippets from mulch larger samples. This samples may have been unbiased to begin with, but when bits and pieces are cited from them, the outcome can be badly flawed and deliberately misleading!
 
WHY CAN'T CALIFORNIANS BEHAVE SENSIBLY? WHEN HEAVY RAINS END A DROUGHT—CATCH THE EXCESS WATER AND DIRECT IT TO DEPLETED RESERVOIRS (Like Lake Mead & Lake Powell!) Instead precious water is wasted by dumping it into the sea or protecting small obscure species of fish. Likewise CA environmental lobbyists cause water waste, by flushing out small amounts of undesirable nutrient runoff with massive amounts of scarce water. 
 
INEPT LEADERSHIP WORSENS OUTCOMES
It’s almost as if Californian’s “mis-managers” purposely choose the least effective solutions. (Recall rampant fires of past years caused/worsened by failures of forest management.) Add misguided politicians like Gov. Newsom, who is methodically leading the “ruin California” government—first as mayor of failing San Francisco and now extending his mismanagement to the whole state!
 
THERES A PATTERN EMERGING AS BIDEN’s INEPTNESS SPREADS BY POOR CABINET CHOICES (Mayorka, Buttigieg to name just two, of several).
Fifty-one former CIA spies were co-opted into signing a Biden campaign letter. Justice Dept., IRS, and others continue to spread the malfeasance. 
 
The cities largely run by Democrats are St. Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland, Newark, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh.  All but three cities on the list have Democratic mayors. Democratic district attorneys are also in charge of prosecution in 12 of the 15 cities.
 
Form your own conclusions by comparing these two lists. You can look up which cities have been run with Democrats for decades. These are the same Democrats who are now trying to run America, with Joe Biden & Kamala Harris at the top, and causing largely the same failings as big cities! 
WHEN WILL AMERICAN VOTERS WAKE UP TO THIS FAILED IDEOLOGY.
 
WHY? THE NOISY, NASTY MINORITY OVER WHELMS THE SENSIBLE, REASONABLE MAJORITY—(Thanks to a distorted media in film, print, TV/Streaming, & entertainment—which is getting less and less “entertaining” every year the Biden Bozos are in charge of running down the USA! (FYI—Bozo was a famous clown!)
 
IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE THIS, YOU ARE ALREADY PARTLY BRAINWASHED BY MEDIA
Here's an Eight Question Survey with interesting National Results.  
Before you see the Survey Results, answer the questions, and see how you score against the Facts:
1.      What percentage of the country is black?
2.      What percentage of marriages are mixed race?
3.      What percentage is "Latino"?
4.      How many families make over $500,000 a year?
5.      What percent of Americans are vegetarians?
6.      What percent of Americans live in NY city?
7.      What percentage of Americans are 'transgender?
8.      What percentage of your fellow citizens are Gay?
  
The Poll Results:
A recent poll was conducted by a national polling outfit.  This one was "YouGov”.
Results to these questions asked of average people on the street:
1.What percentage of the country is black? Answers 41%... Actual 12%. If you watch commercials, you will think it is 90%.
2.What percentage of marriages are mixed race? Answer 50%... Actual 1%. If you watch commercials, you will think it is 90%.
3.What percentage is "Latino"? Answers 39%... Actual numbers 17%.
4.How many families make over $500,000 a year? Answers 26%. Actual figure 1%. We think a quarter of the country is rich.
5.What percent of Americans are vegetarians? Response? 30%… Actual 5%.
6.What percent of Americans live in NY city? Answers? 30%... Actual 3%.
7.What percentage of Americans are 'transgender? 22%... Actual number 1%
8.What percentage of your fellow citizens are Gay? Result? 30%..Actual number 3%
So why do people have such inaccurate beliefs on these counts? THE LIBERAL MEDIA!
The media runs race, gender, and wealth stories constantly. Result?
You are being brainwashed by the national left and the liberal media.
(Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would be proud if he had half the success.)
      Disney just went full-on “gender". They will no longer welcome guests with the traditional "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" Why? Because 1% of the population dictates to the other 99% (that would be the vast majority)
—and corporate America falls for it.
 (Regardless of what you think.  Less than 20% of Americans use "Twitter" yet Twitter controls 80% of public opinion, why? The Media!)
 
Next time you are thinking Americans have changed and not in a good way, remember, it's fake.  It's all a lie. Most people think just like you do but the media has brainwashed Americans with constant broadcasting of “LIES"—often biased—sometimes in both directions!  FIND THE TRUTH…THINK ABOUT WHAT FACTS & OUTCOMES REVEAL,
 
HERE IS HOW IT IMPACTS  HARD WORKING AMERICANS!   THIS IS JUST ONE MAN’S STATEMENT OF HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HIS CAREER—BUT HE IS FAR FROM ALONE IN FEELING THIS WAY!
This appeared on Facebook, and without divulging the name of the man who wrote it, I have known him for 40 years, and worked with him during a decade in that era. He was highly regarded and respected—as you might expect from his words.
 
His words are so honest, inspiring and sobering, I want to help his words reach many more people, because I believe there are tens of millions of Americans who feel the same way he does.
 
We are all voters, and have a privilege and duty to cast our votes and share our vocal support for candidates who will hear this plea and unify to govern accordingly
========================
A proud working, but tired, American’s plea.
I need to rant for just a moment. I'm getting old and I’ve worked hard all my life. 
I have made my reputation, the good and the bad, 
I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I have worked hard to get where I am in life. 
I have juggled my job, my family, and made many sacrifices up front to secure a life for my family. 

It wasn’t always easy and still isn't, but I did it all while maintaining my integrity and my principles. 
I made mistakes and tried to learn from them. 
I have friends of every walk of life and if you’re in my circle, it should be understood that I don’t have to remind you of what I’d be willing to do for you. 
However....

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. People who have sacrificed nothing and feel entitled to receive everything.
I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it themselves. 

I'm really tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which, no one is allowed to debate.
I'm really tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all parties talk like their opinions matter to the common man. 
I’m tired of any of them even pretending they can relate to the life and bank account that I have. 
I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

I’m upset that I’m labeled as a racist because I am proud of my heritage. I never stole any ones land, the government did that..
I’m tired of being told I need to accept the latest fad or politically correct stupidity or befriending a group that’s intent on killing me because I won’t convert to their point of view.

I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. Especially the ones that want me to fund it. 
I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm really tired. But, I'm also glad to be in the twilight of my life. Because mostly, I'm not going to have to see the wretched, depressing world these young useless idiots are creating. And lastly, because even though I shouted from the rooftops, no one listened or seemed to give a damn. 

You reap what you sow, and so do your children. No one is entitled to anything. You have a choice to work, a choice to stay off drugs, a choice to make something of yourself. I have nothing to do with your choice. That's all on you. You are entitled to what you earn.
There is no way these thoughts will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on! Surely, the politically correct opposing censors will try to silence us.
===================
A heartfelt thank you, and a closing thought, a hope and a prayer for you old friend: 
1) I believe the majority of Americans (including me) have lived, worked and now feel like you do; 
2) I hope everyone who does, will vote for well-intentioned candidates, who unify behind the actions to “fix America” for people who feel the way we do;
3) I pray that God will help us find the leaders to redirect America onto a path that will make all those years of hard work payoff—and America become once again—a country that respects and rewards working people at every turn.
 
God bless all Americans who proudly work, and live by the American dream—and lessons of history: (working together) united we stand, divided we fall; to,assure freedom and liberty for all. Remember the words of great American leaders:
 

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”Founding Father Samuel Adams

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.—”President Ronald Reagan

===========================
THE COST OF SUPPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DIVERTS MONEY FROM THOSE WHOSE HARD WORK AND TAXES PAY THE BILLS.

The biggest factor of why Seniors are losing more and more benefits. They are getting blamed for part of our country’s increasing deficit.  If you wonder why older folks are "getting crankier," it’s that they’ve been working for decades to earn their way and pay taxes for the liberals to give away money to those who neither earned it, nor appreciate it.

It's easy to dismiss programs that benefit non-citizens, as "not so much" until they’re added up, and a picture emerges. 

Someone did a lot of research to put together all this data. Often these programs are buried within other programs making it difficult to find the cost of each of them.

The following 11 reasons should be forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the readers gets sick of reading them. Included are the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 Billion is spent on welfare to illegal immigrants each year by state  governments.

Verify At:  http://www.fairus.org/site/Pag [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] eServer?pagename=iic_immigrati onissuecenters7fd8

2. $22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food  Assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC,  and free school lunches for illegal immigrants. 

Verify At:  http://www.cis.org/articles/ [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] 20 04/fiscalexec.HTML 

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal immigrants.

Verify At:  http://www.cis.org/articles/20 [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] 04/fiscalexec.HTML

About the Author Steven A. Camarota is Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C. He holds a master's degree in political science .

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on Primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! 

Verify At:  http://transcripts.cnncom/ [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]TRA NscriptS/0604/01/ldt...0.HT [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]ML

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for Education for the American-born  Children of illegal immigrants, known as Anchor babies.

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal immigrants. 

Verify At:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20 [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTM L< 

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison Inmates are illegal immigrants.

Verify At:  https://owa.slugger.com/owa/Ur [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] 

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on Illegal immigrants for Welfare & Social  Services by the American taxpayers.

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal immigrants.

Verify At:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] NSCRI

10. In 2006, illegal immigrants sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their Countries of origin.

Verify At:. http://rense.com/general75/ nih [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] t.ht[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]m >; 

11. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes committed By Illegal Immigrants In The United States 

Verify At:http:// www.drdsk.com/articleshtml [na01.safelinks.protection.outlookcom]

THE TOTAL COST IS $338.3 BILLION A YEAR.

SINCE THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 135 MILLION TAXPAYERS IN THE UNITED STATES, OVER $2,500.00 OF YOUR TAXES GO TO FUNDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

Are we THAT Stupid?  YES, FOR ALLOWING THOSE IN THE U.S. CONGRESS TO GET AWAY WITH THIS YEAR AFTER YEAR !

If this doesn't bother you, then just delete the message.
If, on the other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every Tax Payer in the United States!!!

God bless America

WHATS WRONG WITH AMERICA? IT’S A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM, WORSENED BY NOISY MEDIA & MINORITIES THAT MISLEAD AMERICANS, WHILE WEAK, MISGUIDED LEADERS & BIASED POLLS MISINFORM VOTERS
Why do I get upset every time I watch the mainstream news. 
Because it’s dismal. Look at the numbers. Look at the behaviors! 
Consider the failures of leadership nearly everywhere. 
 
HERE’S THE CABINET OF JOE BIDEN (& KAMALA HARRI)S (https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet/). Does it make you proud?
 
1) It’s hard to find honest good news, because most news is filled with biases, lies and half truths to support the views of inept leaders, elected to run our country (and not to 'run it into the ground’) by over-spending money on DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) instead of Defense, Leadership and Progress!
 
2) Why do I blame Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, et. al. (the Democrats leading in Congress, mis-managing most of our large cities and states?) Because they are the ones to blame for widespread failures.  People are leaving in huge numbers to find places where leaders lead and don't make excuses for wasting taxpayer money on their misguided “Woke” philosophies, and inept performance.
 
3) Am I making this up? No! Biden is cognitively impaired and getting worse. Consider Biden’s cabinet; it is full of largely politically correct people chosen based not on competence, but on lack of relevant experience and plenty of political correctness. Best example: Kamala Harris is only one heart-beat away from the Presidency. It that doesn't terrify you, listen to her platitude filled, illogical speeches, punctuated with cackling laughter.
 
4) Biden’s cabinet is filled with mostly mediocre, or marginally incompetents like Buttagieg, Mayorka, Blinken, Granholm, and a "class of clowns," making excuses trying to proclaim/redefine/defend Biden’s failures as successes. A few examples: the Chaotic Border & immigration mess, rising Inflation being tamped down by Fed interest rates driving/recession risk, the inexcusable exit/escape from Afghanistan, and much more, all causing failures of USA stature on a global scale.  Biden keeps on saying "everything is fine,” as if that would make it so. It doesn’t.
=======================
 
POLLS ARE BIASED BY THE POLLSTERS QUESTIONS
Not only do pollsters questions bias the replies to pollster questions, but also the so-called random samples used are another form of added distortion!  Reported results are snippets from mulch larger samples. This samples may have been unbiased to begin with, but when bits and pieces are cited from them, the outcome can be badly flawed and deliberately misleading!
 
WHY CAN'T CALIFORNIANS BEHAVE SENSIBLY? WHEN HEAVY RAINS END A DROUGHT—CATCH THE EXCESS WATER AND DIRECT IT TO DEPLETED RESERVOIRS (Like Lake Mead & Lake Powell!) Instead precious water is wasted by dumping it into the sea or protecting small obscure species of fish. Likewise CA environmental lobbyists cause water waste, by flushing out small amounts of undesirable nutrient runoff with massive amounts of scarce water. 
 
INEPT LEADERSHIP WORSENS OUTCOMES
It’s almost as if Californian’s “mis-managers” purposely choose the least effective solutions. (Recall rampant fires of past years caused/worsened by failures of forest management.) Add misguided politicians like Gov. Newsom, who is methodically leading the “ruin California” government—first as mayor of failing San Francisco and now extending his mismanagement to the whole state!
 
THERES A PATTERN EMERGING AS BIDEN’s INEPTNESS SPREADS BY POOR CABINET CHOICES (Mayorka, Buttigieg to name just two, of several).
Fifty-one former CIA spies were co-opted into signing a Biden campaign letter. Justice Dept., IRS, and others continue to spread the malfeasance. 
 
The cities largely run by Democrats are St. Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland, Newark, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh.  All but three cities on the list have Democratic mayors. Democratic district attorneys are also in charge of prosecution in 12 of the 15 cities.
 
Form your own conclusions by comparing these two lists. You can look up which cities have been run with Democrats for decades. These are the same Democrats who are now trying to run America, with Joe Biden & Kamala Harris at the top, and causing largely the same failings as big cities! 
WHEN WILL AMERICAN VOTERS WAKE UP TO THIS FAILED IDEOLOGY.
 
WHY? THE NOISY, NASTY MINORITY OVER WHELMS THE SENSIBLE, REASONABLE MAJORITY—(Thanks to a distorted media in film, print, TV/Streaming, & entertainment—which is getting less and less “entertaining” every year the Biden Bozos are in charge of running down the USA! (FYI—Bozo was a famous clown!)
 
IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE THIS, YOU ARE ALREADY PARTLY BRAINWASHED BY MEDIA
Here's an Eight Question Survey with interesting National Results.  
Before you see the Survey Results, answer the questions, and see how you score against the Facts:
1.      What percentage of the country is black?
2.      What percentage of marriages are mixed race?
3.      What percentage is "Latino"?
4.      How many families make over $500,000 a year?
5.      What percent of Americans are vegetarians?
6.      What percent of Americans live in NY city?
7.      What percentage of Americans are 'transgender?
8.      What percentage of your fellow citizens are Gay?
  
The Poll Results:
A recent poll was conducted by a national polling outfit.  This one was "YouGov”.
Results to these questions asked of average people on the street:
1.What percentage of the country is black? Answers 41%... Actual 12%. If you watch commercials, you will think it is 90%.
2.What percentage of marriages are mixed race? Answer 50%... Actual 1%. If you watch commercials, you will think it is 90%.
3.What percentage is "Latino"? Answers 39%... Actual numbers 17%.
4.How many families make over $500,000 a year? Answers 26%. Actual figure 1%. We think a quarter of the country is rich.
5.What percent of Americans are vegetarians? Response? 30%… Actual 5%.
6.What percent of Americans live in NY city? Answers? 30%... Actual 3%.
7.What percentage of Americans are 'transgender? 22%... Actual number 1%
8.What percentage of your fellow citizens are Gay? Result? 30%..Actual number 3%
So why do people have such inaccurate beliefs on these counts? THE LIBERAL MEDIA!
The media runs race, gender, and wealth stories constantly. Result?
You are being brainwashed by the national left and the liberal media.
(Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would be proud if he had half the success.)
      Disney just went full-on “gender". They will no longer welcome guests with the traditional "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" Why? Because 1% of the population dictates to the other 99% (that would be the vast majority)
—and corporate America falls for it.
 (Regardless of what you think.  Less than 20% of Americans use "Twitter" yet Twitter controls 80% of public opinion, why? The Media!)
 
Next time you are thinking Americans have changed and not in a good way, remember, it's fake.  It's all a lie. Most people think just like you do but the media has brainwashed Americans with constant broadcasting of “LIES"—often biased—sometimes in both directions!  FIND THE TRUTH…THINK ABOUT WHAT FACTS & OUTCOMES REVEAL,
 
HERE IS HOW IT IMPACTS  HARD WORKING AMERICANS!   THIS IS JUST ONE MAN’S STATEMENT OF HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HIS CAREER—BUT HE IS FAR FROM ALONE IN FEELING THIS WAY!
This appeared on Facebook, and without divulging the name of the man who wrote it, I have known him for 40 years, and worked with him during a decade in that era. He was highly regarded and respected—as you might expect from his words.
 
His words are so honest, inspiring and sobering, I want to help his words reach many more people, because I believe there are tens of millions of Americans who feel the same way he does.
 
We are all voters, and have a privilege and duty to cast our votes and share our vocal support for candidates who will hear this plea and unify to govern accordingly
========================
A proud working, but tired, American’s plea.
I need to rant for just a moment. I'm getting old and I’ve worked hard all my life. 
I have made my reputation, the good and the bad, 
I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I have worked hard to get where I am in life. 
I have juggled my job, my family, and made many sacrifices up front to secure a life for my family. 

It wasn’t always easy and still isn't, but I did it all while maintaining my integrity and my principles. 
I made mistakes and tried to learn from them. 
I have friends of every walk of life and if you’re in my circle, it should be understood that I don’t have to remind you of what I’d be willing to do for you. 
However....

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. People who have sacrificed nothing and feel entitled to receive everything.
I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it themselves. 

I'm really tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which, no one is allowed to debate.
I'm really tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all parties talk like their opinions matter to the common man. 
I’m tired of any of them even pretending they can relate to the life and bank account that I have. 
I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

I’m upset that I’m labeled as a racist because I am proud of my heritage. I never stole any ones land, the government did that..
I’m tired of being told I need to accept the latest fad or politically correct stupidity or befriending a group that’s intent on killing me because I won’t convert to their point of view.

I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. Especially the ones that want me to fund it. 
I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm really tired. But, I'm also glad to be in the twilight of my life. Because mostly, I'm not going to have to see the wretched, depressing world these young useless idiots are creating. And lastly, because even though I shouted from the rooftops, no one listened or seemed to give a damn. 

You reap what you sow, and so do your children. No one is entitled to anything. You have a choice to work, a choice to stay off drugs, a choice to make something of yourself. I have nothing to do with your choice. That's all on you. You are entitled to what you earn.
There is no way these thoughts will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on! Surely, the politically correct opposing censors will try to silence us.
===================
A heartfelt thank you, and a closing thought, a hope and a prayer for you old friend: 
1) I believe the majority of Americans (including me) have lived, worked and now feel like you do; 
2) I hope everyone who does, will vote for well-intentioned candidates, who unify behind the actions to “fix America” for people who feel the way we do;
3) I pray that God will help us find the leaders to redirect America onto a path that will make all those years of hard work payoff—and America become once again—a country that respects and rewards working people at every turn.
 
God bless all Americans who proudly work, and live by the American dream—and lessons of history: (working together) united we stand, divided we fall; to,assure freedom and liberty for all. Remember the words of great American leaders:
 

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”Founding Father Samuel Adams

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.—”President Ronald Reagan

===========================
THE COST OF SUPPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DIVERTS MONEY FROM THOSE WHOSE HARD WORK AND TAXES PAY THE BILLS.

The biggest factor of why Seniors are losing more and more benefits. They are getting blamed for part of our country’s increasing deficit.  If you wonder why older folks are "getting crankier," it’s that they’ve been working for decades to earn their way and pay taxes for the liberals to give away money to those who neither earned it, nor appreciate it.

It's easy to dismiss programs that benefit non-citizens, as "not so much" until they’re added up, and a picture emerges. 

Someone did a lot of research to put together all this data. Often these programs are buried within other programs making it difficult to find the cost of each of them.

The following 11 reasons should be forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the readers gets sick of reading them. Included are the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 Billion is spent on welfare to illegal immigrants each year by state  governments.

Verify At:  http://www.fairus.org/site/Pag [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] eServer?pagename=iic_immigrati onissuecenters7fd8

2. $22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food  Assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC,  and free school lunches for illegal immigrants. 

Verify At:  http://www.cis.org/articles/ [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] 20 04/fiscalexec.HTML 

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal immigrants.

Verify At:  http://www.cis.org/articles/20 [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] 04/fiscalexec.HTML

About the Author Steven A. Camarota is Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C. He holds a master's degree in political science .

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on Primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! 

Verify At:  http://transcripts.cnncom/ [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]TRA NscriptS/0604/01/ldt...0.HT [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]ML

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for Education for the American-born  Children of illegal immigrants, known as Anchor babies.

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal immigrants. 

Verify At:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20 [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTM L< 

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison Inmates are illegal immigrants.

Verify At:  https://owa.slugger.com/owa/Ur [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] 

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on Illegal immigrants for Welfare & Social  Services by the American taxpayers.

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal immigrants.

Verify At:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] NSCRI

10. In 2006, illegal immigrants sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their Countries of origin.

Verify At:. http://rense.com/general75/ nih [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] t.ht[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]m >; 

11. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes committed By Illegal Immigrants In The United States 

Verify At:http:// www.drdsk.com/articleshtml [na01.safelinks.protection.outlookcom]

THE TOTAL COST IS $338.3 BILLION A YEAR.

SINCE THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 135 MILLION TAXPAYERS IN THE UNITED STATES, OVER $2,500.00 OF YOUR TAXES GO TO FUNDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

Are we THAT Stupid?  YES, FOR ALLOWING THOSE IN THE U.S. CONGRESS TO GET AWAY WITH THIS YEAR AFTER YEAR !

If this doesn't bother you, then just delete the message.
If, on the other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every Tax Payer in the United States!!!

God bless America

 

Posted at 06:55 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: AFGHANISTAN, BIDEN, BORDER CHAOS, CABINET, DEFICITS, HARRIS, IMMIGRATION, INFLATION, INTEREST RATES, MEDIA, RECESSION

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April 22, 2023

THE ENTERPRISE--Telling It Like It Is--MULTIPLE IMPORTANT TOPICS, TO BE FORWARDED AND SHARED.

THE ENTERPRISE--Telling It Like It Is--MULTIPLE IMPORTANT TOPICS, TO BE FORWARDED AND SHARED.
 
A CONTINUATION OF AI INFO—A GOOGLE EXEC. ADMITTED THEY WEREN’T SURE HOW AI MIGHT BEHAVE.
A Follow-up on the RISK and POWER of AI, ChatGPT, DEEP FAKE  and other new technologies

A CRITICAL NEED (be sure to read Peggy Noonan’s column posted in a .pdf file below)
There are now tools to detect AI created fakes! AI is improving rapidly. Back in January, one AI, DALL-E, which powers Microsoft’s new Bing Image Center/Creator, might have rendered a human with backward fingers or a floating, unattached eyeball. Behind many AI images is Midjouney. By March, it’s AI images had improved enough to fool most observers. 

New HELP tools—Optic, an AI "trust and safety site" released "AI or Not,” a system that analyzes a photo or image to assess if it was made by a human or by AI. Another HELP tool—Hive—also offers a 95% accurate AI-generated "content detector”. Humans can also HELP identify AI created images, by looking for mistakes like missing reflections or misplaced shadows. AI, Chat GPT and other systems are being used more widely in offices, its credibility depends on knowing "what’s fake and what’s real!"

The Medical profession is likely to benefit from AI’s ability as decision-support systems. AI can sort through data, search for patterns, recall and correlate information, etc. AI can help Doctors (and researchers) find better diagnoses, get better outcomes and find more effective treatments.

Robots and Machine Learning have been used in factories more and more, to perform complex, but repetitive tasks. New AI programs can speed up the learning curve, and enhance productivity. Like all advances in technology, the process of using new tools, validating them and refining them will involve trial and error, but the payoff can be huge—in factories, in offices and especially in medical settings. As factories come back to the USA from low wage foreign countries, improved technology can level the playing field faster than ever.
 
YOU MUST CLICK  AND READ PEGGY NOONAN’S WSJ COLUMN. IT IS BOTH BRILLIANT AND FRIGHTENING!
 
Other Headlines to know about:
How Many Homes the US Really Needs What we need are more insightful awareness of what’s needed and where: More apartments in some areas, more homes in others, greater density of construction in places where careful land use is important. Booming areas near where major new plants are going, must use this functional awareness wisely, and that includes transportation planning.

Poll Shows Shift in What Americans Value But somehow, many Americans don’t vote for what they tell pollsters they want. There have been worrisome drops in Patriotism, Religion, Community Involvement and Having Children, all of which reduce the quality of the “fabric of life” in America. 

U.S. Voters Want Limited Government, or so they tell pollsters. However, they don’t vote that way. If the “big government” comes with big $$ handouts, they don’t always choose accordingly. Voters say they prefer less services and lower taxes by huge margins, yeet they keep electing “tax & spend Democrats” in big numbers. Republicans have long held the high ground on the economy, law & order, limited government, border security and lower taxes—until they go to the ballot box—where Republicans have failed to make and communicate a unified case for what the people say they want.

Biden Remakes the Auto Industry by his mandates, de facto orders to make and buy EVs, in impossibly soon time frames. The US is neither ready for, nor capable of meeting such arbitrary (tighter) standards by 2027-2032. Ill conceived and poorly informed, Joe Biden has  no idea what is involved in making his rash mandates happen. There is neither the rare earth mining or refining capability available, nor are the nationwide charging station and power-grid infrastructure available or ready.

'Net Zero’ Will Mean a MIning Boom, but meanwhile, most of the necessary capability is located in underdeveloped countries like Peru, Chile, Congo, et. al. 60% of Lithium and 47% of Copper comes from faraway places, or from China. Mining is a long-development-time industry, and one that cares little about Biden’s uniformed mandates. Global supply chains for entire industries don’e just happen!
USA Military (Un)Readiness in the face of Taiwan, Russian/Ukraine conflicts and many more places. Biden gives money away to his pet causes and ignores National Security issues. He doesn’t even comprehend what the issues are. Bottom line—the USA  is far from ready for one armed conflict, e,g, with China over Taiwan, not to mention more support for Ukraine vs. Russia and varied cnfkicts with Iran, North Korea, etc.

Democrats are learning their downside of extremely elderly, or infirm, or cognitively challenged political leaders, especially when the Senate majority is split 51-49! The narrow part majorities in both the Senate & House makes their numerical cintrol fragile,and vulnerable to people changing parties, or suffering from 8ll healt, being unable to vote on critical bills.
 
FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED. WITH THE GROWTH OF AI AND ALL OF ITS VARIANTS, THE TRUTH IS INCREASINGLY HARD TO FIND.   
 
PLEASE FORWARD THESE “WARNINGS"—AND LET’S HOPE READERS RESPOND WITH INPUT, AND BETTER IDEAS ON HOW & WHERE TO FIND TRUTH AND REALITY.
 
Best wishes for a dangerous future,
JOHN
 
==================================
 
OPTIONAL READING—A SPECIAL ATTACHMENT—THAT CAME TO ME WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION. I AM SHARING IT TO SEE IF ANYONE KNOWS THE ORIGINAL SOURCE FOR IT  (Accuracy is not confirmed…)
 
Controversy of the Month: ARE WE BEING BRAINWASHED AND DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT? Or is it simply biased “Media Manipulation"
 

Brainwashing is best accomplished when you have no idea that it is being done but simply occurs as part of the fabric of your life. While you may “feel” that something is wrong, you are being “programmed” by what you see, none-the-less. 

Years ago “proportional representation”  (in a proportion the same as in the population) was required by the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters). Now, with pressure from “Woke” special interests and others, this standard is GONE! Think about TV Commercials and shows NOW, with these facts in mind.

Facts:  US population 334 million consists of 57.8% white, 18.7% Latino, 12.1% Black and 11.4% Asian or other. About 10% of all marriages are interracial and only 4.9% of the population identifies as LGBT. You might expect the same ratios in TV commercials,  if they represented America but here’s what you see instead, taken from a log of TV commercials over a 4 month period last year, which is quite different.

For TV & Ads, white men, the majority of Americans, have virtually disappeared. When in commercials they are either old, ugly/sick or the partner of a black woman (and have no speaking part). In other words, less than 10% of the population is driving 90% of the TV/video narrative.  

There were NO commercials featuring white fathers and sons. None! Yet 75% of white children live with both their parents—including their fathers, but marketers/advertisers show the 62% of black children that do NOT live in a two parent household? Is this the healthy “new normal” image viewers see? 

Are you starting to see how distorted, yet pervasive this video brainwashing has become? Exactly who is trying to program us to believe this TV deluge of non-reality. 

During a period of 4 months in 2022, the study found that while the African American population in America is only 12% they were featured in 94.3% of the commercials. Black males are only 5% of our population yet were in 89.7% of the ads. Then you have to ask, where are the Asians and Latino’s that make up nearly THREE TIMES the black population?  

The fact is that while white males make up the largest segment of our population, they were in only in 4% of the TV commercials! (In most of those cases they are in their 60’s to 80’s and were pushing medication for debilitating diseases or Medicare plans.) 

(And it is not just TV commercials that offer this skewed media driven unreality. It is also nearly impossible to turn on a show that doesn’t have a gay couple or LGBT component, yet in reality only one in eighteen should, if they want to accurately represent the less than 4.9% of the population that fall in this group. 

The results of this brainwashing are dramatic and successful. Despite the low percentage in real life, when polled, Americans have been brainwashed to believe that 24% of all Americans are LGBT! Based on commercials, they must also believe that the “average” American family is biracial, that white men barely exist and Latinos/Asians do not exist at all.

That is the magic and the tragedy of the fake, dishonest and unrealistic “woke” TV that we watch and are affected by 24/7, even though it is far from reality. Ditto for the “woke” minority that follow mindlessly in its wake, thinking that this bizarre narrative is real or justified, when it is merely an illusion and/or a fabrication. Such ads truly do control our entire thought process and distort our perception of reality, if we allow them. This is what also shapes the beliefs of youth watching TV.

======================

THAT’S NOT ALL: The same goes from DEI—Diversity, Equity and Inclusion—which are worthy goals—when kept in perspective. Ditto for investing in ESG —Environmental, Social, and Governance— Woke investment models, which typically fall short of offering returns comparable to conventional finance-based models.  

The message: Don’t believe everything you see on TV, MOVIES, OR VIDEO (INCLUDING ON-LINE)  Keep your "head on straight: and don’t fall for dangerous mis-information, whatever the motives and whoever the originators.

Posted at 09:34 AM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: AI, AI-or Not, Auto Industry, Biden, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Deep Fake, Democrats, Hive, Housing, Midjourney, Optic, Republicans, Voters

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April 05, 2023

THE ENTERPRISE—“A WHOLE NEW WORLD”—PART 2: THIS "NEW WORLD" NEEDS A COMPETENT, NEW GENERATION OF RATIONAL, ETHICAL LEADERS TO DEMAND—THAT TECH CREATORS ADAPT & EVOLVE THE CONTROLS FASTER THAN THEIR TECH INNOVATIONS CREATE UNIMAGINABLE PROBLEMS

THE ENTERPRISE—“A WHOLE NEW WORLD”—PART 2: THIS "NEW WORLD" NEEDS A COMPETENT, NEW GENERATION OF RATIONAL, ETHICAL LEADERS TO DEMAND—THAT TECH CREATORS ADAPT & EVOLVE THE CONTROLS FASTER THAN THEIR TECH INNOVATIONS CREATE UNIMAGINABLE PROBLEMS
 
ON MARCH 2, I OPENED THE ENTERPRISE WITH THESE PARAGRAPHS, EXCERPTED IN PART HERE (BY A HUMAN!)
 
I am adding a very insightful & troubling column by Peggy Noonan of the WSJ. 
PLEASE OPEN THIS AND READ IT—IN DETAIL. Then read my March 2 excerpts from THE ENTERPRISE.
 
THE ENTERPRISE—A WHOLE NEW WORLD COMING—WE NEED A COMPETENT NEW GENERATION OF LEADERSHIP TO ADAPT AND EVOLVE; 
A WHOLE NEW WORLD is here, and growing fast:
  • AI (Artificial Intelligence) is here and growing—fast. Learn what it does well—and what it doesn’t do well. It lacks human imagination, ethics and sensitivity. Make sure the places where you find its apparently factual approach useful and consider them. Where it’s not human and thus lacks nuances, beware. Danger lurks here.
  • ChatGPT creates written material that seems terrific, but once again, my be just “great sounding” but not totally right or applicable. It’s a convenient shortcut, but like “autocorrect,” it can produce grossly wrong written things that might sound fine. (Sort of like politicians speeches!) Learn how to detect it. Hint:—it’s not good at math!
  • 3D Printing can create physical objects from prints, drawings and images, from micro-small electronic parts to very big aircraft parts, and dangerous things like non-metallic guns made of printed plastic parts! This is a powerful way to also “print” (create) functioning human replacement body parts, as simple as a reconstructed outer ear, and as complex as a transplantable working kidney!
  • Deep Fakes can create authentic-looking videos of people speaking, in voice replicas, that seem so real, only experts can tell the difference. A TV commercial for a political candidate can be a “deep fake” that is nearly indistinguishable from a real video commercial. How scary is that? What can you trust? How do you know?
  • Cosmetic surgery has developed to the extent that facial recognition becomes nearly impossible. Example: countless actresses and some actors have decided that their nose was too big or the wrong shape, or their lips should be fuller, or they should have less wrinkles in their forehead (for example).. Look ate more recent photos of them, and you will not recognize them—at all—after plastic surgery. Facial recognition software measures facial dimensions, and stll work, but humanvisual recognition doesn’t. Who is that?
  • Body Doubles stand in for prominent people in risky positions, especially political leaders and movie stars. All have used “look alike doubles” for years. The doubles did risky stunts or made non-speaking public appearances where the risk of kidnap or attack/assassination was substantial. 
  •         Implants of all kinds can now control parts of the human brain—for good or bad. When they work, we think we know why and how—but do we really? Maybe? Maybe not?
Now combine all of these and imagine the level of misdirection and deception possible! That is truly a “Whole New World,” and one in which we can barely trust our senses or intellect to distinguish reality & truth from cleverly fabricated fakes & lies!  Our only defense comes from knowing what’s possible and learning how to determine which is a “fake" and which is “real." Be alert. What’s more, even with the best of intentions, trying to give the power of sentient thought to an "electronic machine” is dangerous beyond belief?
 
Rev: Warning: the accuracy of what’s written in books, articles, or podcasts & web sites is totally dependent on the expertise and integrity of whoever or whatever programs or algorithms wrote them. (E.g., Anthony Fauci’s continual series of contradictory statements on Covid.) They may not have had malicious intent, but rather come from an evolution of what seemed to be true, in a rapidly evolving area of science and virology, mixed with politics and distortion to match their agendas. 
 
THE BIG QUESTIONS ARE THOSE OF CONTROL: in this "Whole New World,”  Ray Kurzweil’s books describe it very well.
Summary review: A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Nearer who Bill Gates calls “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence”
For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
 
Consequences: how to know: What’s right? Who’s right? What’s best? What & Who do we believe? What’s real and what’s not?(Human created and controlled vs. computer-algorithm created—without controls?) 
 
Where do we find that next generation of contemporary leaders, with up-to-date knowledge, the wisdom and ethical courage to understand and control the new threats from opportunities, and unintended consequences, to replace the antiquated leaders of today (all in mid-70’s and older, and mostly clueless about this "Whole New World,” coming at us with amazing speed. .) 
 
Disclosure: I’m of the "older generation" and try as I might, I can’t get ahead of it. I find the wisdom of experience, integrity and ethics falls prey to the power of wealth and money of new tech developers. Naivete, not necessarily evil, drives their mistakes and multiply the risks exponentially.
 
Pros & Cons of Aged Leaders: It’s been known/proven that just as certainly as age brings knowledge, wisdom and experience, it also brings a decline in vitality, memory and cognitive function. This requires that we find new objective information sources and NEW people to lead, people that we believe are the best informed & least-biased (all of us are biased in one way or another), to help in our assessment of ethics, truth, objectivity and consequences of decision-making for the future.
 
I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER(S). I JUST RECOGNIZE THE RISKS, AND PRAY WE CAN FIND LEADERS WHO ARE SMART ENOUGH, MORAL ENOUGH AND WISE ENOUGH TO LEAD, BECAUSE THE ONES WE HAVE NOW ARE (MOSTLY) NOT! 
 
POLITICS REIGNS OVER PRUDENCE. BIAS WINS OVER ETHICS. BIG MONEY & POWER OBSCURES CONSEQUENCES.
GOD HELP US!
JOHN

Posted at 05:51 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: AI, Biden, ChatGpt, China, Dep Fake, Digital Printing, elections, New World, Russia

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February 10, 2023

THE ENTERPRISE— QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING—AND ANSWERS TOO FEW WANT TO HEAR—UNIFY TO FIX AMERICA'S PROBLEMS

THE ENTERPRISE— QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING—AND ANSWERS TOO FEW WANT TO HEAR—UNIFY TO FIX AMERICA'S PROBLEMS

1) Who wants a Trump vs. Biden 2024 Presidential Election? If you accept that human behavior becomes more erratic and cognitive decline sets in at advanced ages, does having a pair of octogenarians vying to lead America make good sense? You’ve seen the evidence. Biden’s recent SOTU (State Of The Union) address increased the likelihood of his 2024 presidential run. Trump is neck and neck with DeSantis, but he’s already starting to try trashing the Floridian.

2) If EVs and the Electrification of millions of vehicles (to save the planet/climate) happens worldwide (including China), where does all the electricity come from? Generated from what fuel? Even Biden admitted that fossil fuels will be needed for the next decade (only one?).

3) If the US Power Grid is fragile now, can it be protected from sabotage by individuals with high power rifles? Sun spots? Cascading blackouts? There’s lots of talk but no action. The entire SOTU was a litany of wishlists that even the tax and spend liberals don’t know how to fund. "Taxing the rich” is a favorite mantra, but even if taxes took everything from the richest 1%, it wouldn’t even cover one year’s budget deficit ($1 Trillion).

4) If today’s fossil fuel power plants last 20+/- years, and can be refurbished, how long do “renewable energy plants” based on Wind, Solar, & Battery power last before they must’ve replaced? (Hint: Less than 10 years). How much mining, refining and importing of metals, concrete, plastics, carbon, and exotic (rare earth) materials come from? And what is the environmental impact of that? How and where do those plants get disposed of when their useful life is over?

5) If we perfect AI, and “Deep Fake” technologies, how will we know what’s real? And will humans become obsolete?  For a scary thought, imagine that "Deep Fake" videos of leaders could be scripted to say whatever was needed to justify their agenda.  Joe Biden is only a slightly more human version of that now.  He says (mostly) whatever the speechwriters put on his Teleprompter!  https://www.edge.org/conversation/ray_kurzweil-the-singularity

OTHER QUESTIONS—and answers
Who would you rather believe?
When President Biden’s speech writers tell him to say: “…climate change is the greatest threat to humanity, greater than nuclear weapons…” is that irresponsible? Check it out using your own intelligence.
—Can nuclear weapons can kill millions in a blink of an eye and make the earth uninhabitable for centuries—faster than Climate Change? (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Japan) Now North Korean leader Un has nukes to reach the US. Iran under the protective wing of John Kerry, continues its nuclear weapons program unabated. China floats a spy Balloon across the USA while Biden dithers about where to shoot it down. Meanwhile it gathers intel about the USA, and transmits it back to China (that’s what all those big solar panels on the balloon were there to power.)
—Is Climate change is settled science—NO—far from it. After years as Obama top climate scientist, Steven Kooning quit, and wrote his book “Unsettled” which blatantly debunks the climate threat. Weather is dangerous, but it is not Climate. As long as people build things in the path where storms are prone to go, those thingS will be destroyed by weather—not climate change. Read for yourself:
https://www.amazon.com/Unsettled-Climate-Science-Doesnt-Matters-ebook/dp/B08JQKQGD5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8A43C0VJ3B92&keywords=unsettled+steven+koonin&qid=1675365621&sprefix=Unsettled%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-1
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What's Wrong with Wind and Solar?
prageru.com
 
OTHER QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING—AND  NO ONE IN CHARGE HAS ANY ANSWERS TO.
Where will future workers come from, as US population growth is below replacement rate of 2.1? DATA: 45% of NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) members cannot find enough workers, while 5 million illegals (2022) wander about the US trying to find welfare and places to live?
What’s a big warning sign that the economy under Biden is struggling in spite of strong job growth: Amazon Web Service, is dropping in sales—substantially. This is the cash cow that supports its earnings when Amazon.com chooses to cut prices to undersell competitors. When the cash cow is struggling, soon after Amazon will be.

Why buy less underwear? Hanesbrands, the big underwear company, slashed dividends and is frantically cutting costs because sales have slowed. When times are tough, buying new underwear is a postponable purchase! Caution! Tough times are coming.
Why do self-serving politicians clog up American politics so nothing useful or sensible gets done?  Even when elected officials (politicians?) unify to accomplish something worthwhile that is right in front of them, they fall back to sell-serving choices. Aesop, the Greek philosopher first said, “united we stand, divided we fall.” Abe Lincoln added, “ A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  And yet GOP factions still ignore those timeless truths! UNIFY!
 
Why are people leaving the “Blue States” and flocking to the Red States? Nearly 1,000,000 people left CA, NY, & IL, NJ, MA from July 2021 to July 2022. Where did they go? To places where taxes are lower and freedom is greater, where state governments are run by GOP elected officials — FL, TX, NC, SC, TN, GA, and AZ….etc.  And people are flocking to them.
 
What is the "great inversion" and why is it happening? It’s a popular shift away from the wealthy liberal elites and toward the working classes—heavily Hispanics, and Blacks. They are swinging to the GOP as voters too. Inexorably voting for their rights as workers and wealth creators—not wealth holders, who have held them in "economic slavery" for decades. 
 
Can the GOP figure out how to become a real working-class party? Yes, but only if they can UNIFY behind a suitable agenda, and NEW Leaders, and not chase special interests and petulant tantrums.
 
When will Biden ever stand up for the US against China and the other “axis of evil” countries? Or will he ever do more that "talk tough, and do little or nothing?" Letting a Chinese spy balloon traverse the US gathering intel and sending it back to China is just the most recent case of “talk tough and do nothing” by the Democrats in both the White House and Senate. (Of course Biden’s family is deeply indebted to China as John Kerry’s is to Iran! The evidence is right before our eyes, yet nothing is done about it because the Dems control the government.)
 
Why can’t we “stop making news and start making progress?”  Because we ask the question the wrong way. It should be asked, “How can we start making progress instead of just making news?”  Doing the next right thing has become too contentious. Most people, even elected leaders, know the right things to do, and true collaboration comes from the collective wisdom of a group a seeking a common, successful outcome.
  
If Governments were formed to serve the people, (not vice versa) and do (only) the things the people cannot do alone, then why does it feel like we are serving the government and funding it as it taxes us more and more? (Because foreign powers have American leaders in their pockets.)
 
Why isn’t Common sense very “common" any more—it should be! Because the truth is an inconvenient thing, that keeps pointing out the error of our ways … and our leadership!
 
How can we push to Unify—and fix what’s broken in America? Throw out (Un-elect) Democrat politicians, policies and wrong leadership—it’s already causing more big US cities and states to be failing (CA, NY, & IL, NJ, MA to name the few biggest.) Let the "great reversion" sweep the nation, and remake it in the image of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.
 
Is that enough unanswered questions?
John
 
Bonus reading: Our Political Parties Are Struggling — DECLARATIONS

Posted at 12:39 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: AI, Biden, China, Climate Change, Deep Fake, Dems, DeSantis, EVs, GOP, Iran, Power Grid, Solar, Trump, Unify, Wind

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January 09, 2023

THE ENTERPRISE—2022 YEAR END RECAP: WHAT WILL 2023 BRING? CHAOS OR CONSENSUS? WILL AMERICA PROGRESS OR REGRESS?

2022 YEAR END RECAP

 
IT ONLY TOOK 15 VOTES TO CHOOSE A SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE!
Kevin McCarthy was the candidate that not enough people wanted, but too many people preferred. The narrowly divided GOP House majority finally came together enough—216 of them at 12:45 AM last night. Through it all, the 212 Dems showed unity by voting for their little known candidate, Hakeem Jeffries, all 15 votes. 
 
UNITY IS KEY TO SUCCCESS: Good or bad, the Dems proved one thing during Nancy Pelosi’s reign. If you want to get things done, stick together—even if you disagree on the details. Trying to pass anything in a “house divided” will be nearly impossible. The Dems still hold the narrown 51-49 edge in the Senate and the White House (The GOP proved one thing, stubbornness and holding out for individual narrowly held agendas, does work—somewhat—however many people are irritated by it.)
 
THIS CONGRESS SHOWS THE CLEAR PARTISAN DISAGREEMENT ABOUT HOW AMERICA SHOULD BE GOVERNED.
The details of “how" vary even within parties. Can someone please show a bumbling, dithering Joe Biden and his inept (laughing) VP Kamala Harris, where the US Southern true border (chaos) is located? They are  misrepresenting America to the world as a country unsure of its path forward.  One thing is certain—CHANGES ARE NEEDED— but which changes, and how?
 
I TRY TO WRITE ABOUT BUSINESS & GENERAL ECONOMIC/SOCIETAL ISSUES. 
THIS DIVIDED GOVERNMENT MAKES IT HARD TO DECIDE WHAT TO CHANGE IN “HOW AMERICA WORKS.” 
 
The list is simple; the solutions are not. Here’s where changes must be made!!
  1. Economic Growth—Tax policy, big government/welfare state & regulations vs. right-to-work, and free-market capitalism, etc.
  2. Inflation—High but dropping, still impacting millions, middle/lower classes hit hardest
  3. Recession—Caused by Fed efforts to curtail inflation (caused by excess spending), hurts middle/lower income classes most
  4. Immigration—Chaos and lack of any organization—illegal entry uncontrolled, no path to legitimacy
  5. Education—Charter Schools, Teaching Facts vs. Biases, indoctrination is not education.
  6. Fiscal Policy—Massive Debt and Deficit Spending—Entitlements (unstoppable) fueling continuous (runaway) spending
  7. Foreign Policy—China/Taiwan, Russia/Ukraine, North Korea, Middle East, (even parts of Europe) = trouble/
  8. Energy—Independence vs. bogus media & Dem Climate issues
  9. Demographic Destiny—Too few workers: an aging population, with birth rate below replacement, is a workforce in decline—welfare vs. work is winning, and America is losing. WE NEED TO CHANGE HOW AMERICA WORKS.
  10. Abortion—especially after Roe v. Wade was overturned
  11. Gender confusion—LGBTQ etc., Gender “identity" vs. Biology, and “WOKE’s” excessive, misguided attention to societal facts and issues (e.g., racial and social justice, language, etc.)
Recent Headlines give us some clues to what MUST CHANGE—a lot!
 
IF THE GOP HAS ANY INTEGRITY, IT SHOULD NOT HAVE SEATED GEORGE SANTOS, AND SHOULD REMOVE HIM ASAP..
I’m well aware of how narrow the GOP edge is in the House, but his entire resume & campaign was built on flagrant fabrications—lies—and he shows little or no remorse. No matter how narrow the GOP margin is in the House, seating this man, and leaving him there, would be a travesty & inexcusable!  
 
THE WORST EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF MISBEHAVIOR—TOO LATE—BUT STILL TERRIBLE—spans 40+ years, DURING WHICH Joe Biden built an equally outrageous record of background fabrications—all excused by “mis-remembering” or “confusion.” That’s a commentary on the lack of integrity of both Biden and Democrat Party who allowed it and re-elected him anyway.  Son Hunter Biden is now following in his father’s footsteps—outrageous! Both are dangerously aligned with China amidst Joe’s cognitive decline.
 
BIDEN’ TITLE 42 CATASTROPHE Blindly reversing a political opponent’s (Trump) policies—that were working — is the worst form of regression! The border chaos is startling evidence. However, IF the GOP has better ideas, it must choose electable candidates (not Trump loyalists) and regain control of American borders.
 
EDUCATION AS A BATTLEGROUND Students & teachers numbers grew by about 8% over the past two decades—Administrators grew by TEN+ TIMES as much—88%. That’s what’s wrong with education. Administrators dominate, aided and abetted by teacher’s unions,  to decide what’s right to teach—while parents are either pushed aside—or choose to abdicate their role. 
 
CHARTER SCHOOLS SUCCESS MAKES THEM A POLITICAL TARGET. Charter schools work, which make them a big political target! Teacher’s unions don’t work for better education! It’s as simple as that. Upcoming SCOTUS rulings can have a big impact to help. Educating children does not mean Indoctrinating them. Facts matter, not biased opinions.
 
US POPULATION GROWTH STAGNATES Whether by choice (Covid, abortion or social changes) a smaller population can’t grow the US economy. When the big govt. Nanny State makes it more lucrative to sit home than to work, the US (American) work ethic suffers and dies. Only if the wave of illegal immigrants can be funneled into a job-filling,  value-creating population boost this get fixed. Otherwise demographics are destiny.
 
WHITE HOUSE AIMS TO BOOST THE WORKFORCE, but is doing it by more welfare/deficit spending even on elder care and child care, is not the solution. Making work noble, patriotic and rewarding is the way to progress. The White House occupant and his party advisors don’t get that. They believe in big Government, financial payments (bribes), and not the competitive free enterprise system that supported American prosperity and growth!
 
THE BATTLE OVER WORK AND WELFARE HAS States fighting back against the Biden drive to Increase dependency.  The falling labor participation rate is the clue and metric that reveals the policy flaws. The Biden administration is hindering states whose policies work.
 
FINALLY, CHINA MAY BE RUNNING OUT OF MONEY. PUTIN MAY BE RUNNING OUT OF AMMO. Everything the US can do to worsen their problems is good. Unfortunately, the President's family is beholden to China. Finally he’s come around to helping Ukraine. If only Biden would resume American energy independence policies (Trump's) that he reversed, and quit chasing the impossible dreams of "all renewables," it would quickly rejuvenate America.
 
HIDDEN INFLATION (NOT IN THE NUMBERS). Theft via shrink in retail is rampant, costing millions. Like unpunished crime in American big cities (catch & release), it needs to be reined in. Marketing deception via package contents reduction should require (at least) a prominent package banner— NEW, REDUCED CONTENT PACKAGE! That’s aa crude idea but may be the only way to thwart “inflation via deception” in packaging. 
 
GOP MUST UNIFY, START FIGHTING (DEMS) TOGETHER, INSTEAD OF EACH OTHER. Do the right things for American prosperity.  Take advantage of EARLY VOTING to counter Dems, stop their “ballot harvesting” and bring   generation of GOP leaders—not Trump and his cronies. Trump cannot win in 2024, and IF he outspends to get a GOP nomination to run (against an even older, more impaired version of Biden) American voters (& GOP, Senatorial hopefuls) will face a terrible choice in 2024!
 
That’s as blunt a year-end “shopping list of Changing How America Works” as I can give—in hopes of a truly Happy New Year for all Americans. If our elected representatives work together for the good of America and Americans—it can be fixed. 
But will they? Doubtful!  Here’s hoping for the best, and a whole new generation of leaders.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
John 
 
 
 

 

Posted at 04:47 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: Biden, China, Education, Fiscal Policy, Foreign policy, gender, Harris, Immigration, Inflation, LGBTQ, McCarthy, Middle East, Pelosi, Putin, Russia, Spending, Taiwan, Ukraine, Unions, Woke, Xi

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THE ENTERPRISE—2022 YEAR END RECAP: WHAT WILL 2023 BRING? CHAOS OR CONSENSUS? WILL AMERICA PROGRESS OR REGRESS?

2022 YEAR END RECAP

 
IT ONLY TOOK 15 VOTES TO CHOOSE A SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE!
Kevin McCarthy was the candidate that not enough people wanted, but too many people preferred. The narrowly divided GOP House majority finally came together enough—216 of them at 12:45 AM last night. Through it all, the 212 Dems showed unity by voting for their little known candidate, Hakeem Jeffries, all 15 votes. 
 
UNITY IS KEY TO SUCCCESS: Good or bad, the Dems proved one thing during Nancy Pelosi’s reign. If you want to get things done, stick together—even if you disagree on the details. Trying to pass anything in a “house divided” will be nearly impossible. The Dems still hold the narrown 51-49 edge in the Senate and the White House (The GOP proved one thing, stubbornness and holding out for individual narrowly held agendas, does work—somewhat—however many people are irritated by it.)
 
THIS CONGRESS SHOWS THE CLEAR PARTISAN DISAGREEMENT ABOUT HOW AMERICA SHOULD BE GOVERNED.
The details of “how" vary even within parties. Can someone please show a bumbling, dithering Joe Biden and his inept (laughing) VP Kamala Harris, where the US Southern true border (chaos) is located? They are  misrepresenting America to the world as a country unsure of its path forward.  One thing is certain—CHANGES ARE NEEDED— but which changes, and how?
 
I TRY TO WRITE ABOUT BUSINESS & GENERAL ECONOMIC/SOCIETAL ISSUES. 
THIS DIVIDED GOVERNMENT MAKES IT HARD TO DECIDE WHAT TO CHANGE IN “HOW AMERICA WORKS.” 
 
The list is simple; the solutions are not. Here’s where changes must be made!!
  1. Economic Growth—Tax policy, big government/welfare state & regulations vs. right-to-work, and free-market capitalism, etc.
  2. Inflation—High but dropping, still impacting millions, middle/lower classes hit hardest
  3. Recession—Caused by Fed efforts to curtail inflation (caused by excess spending), hurts middle/lower income classes most
  4. Immigration—Chaos and lack of any organization—illegal entry uncontrolled, no path to legitimacy
  5. Education—Charter Schools, Teaching Facts vs. Biases, indoctrination is not education.
  6. Fiscal Policy—Massive Debt and Deficit Spending—Entitlements (unstoppable) fueling continuous (runaway) spending
  7. Foreign Policy—China/Taiwan, Russia/Ukraine, North Korea, Middle East, (even parts of Europe) = trouble/
  8. Energy—Independence vs. bogus media & Dem Climate issues
  9. Demographic Destiny—Too few workers: an aging population, with birth rate below replacement, is a workforce in decline—welfare vs. work is winning, and America is losing. WE NEED TO CHANGE HOW AMERICA WORKS.
  10. Abortion—especially after Roe v. Wade was overturned
  11. Gender confusion—LGBTQ etc., Gender “identity" vs. Biology, and “WOKE’s” excessive, misguided attention to societal facts and issues (e.g., racial and social justice, language, etc.)
Recent Headlines give us some clues to what MUST CHANGE—a lot!
 
IF THE GOP HAS ANY INTEGRITY, IT SHOULD NOT HAVE SEATED GEORGE SANTOS, AND SHOULD REMOVE HIM ASAP..
I’m well aware of how narrow the GOP edge is in the House, but his entire resume & campaign was built on flagrant fabrications—lies—and he shows little or no remorse. No matter how narrow the GOP margin is in the House, seating this man, and leaving him there, would be a travesty & inexcusable!  
 
THE WORST EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF MISBEHAVIOR—TOO LATE—BUT STILL TERRIBLE—spans 40+ years, DURING WHICH Joe Biden built an equally outrageous record of background fabrications—all excused by “mis-remembering” or “confusion.” That’s a commentary on the lack of integrity of both Biden and Democrat Party who allowed it and re-elected him anyway.  Son Hunter Biden is now following in his father’s footsteps—outrageous! Both are dangerously aligned with China amidst Joe’s cognitive decline.
 
BIDEN’ TITLE 42 CATASTROPHE Blindly reversing a political opponent’s (Trump) policies—that were working — is the worst form of regression! The border chaos is startling evidence. However, IF the GOP has better ideas, it must choose electable candidates (not Trump loyalists) and regain control of American borders.
 
EDUCATION AS A BATTLEGROUND Students & teachers numbers grew by about 8% over the past two decades—Administrators grew by TEN+ TIMES as much—88%. That’s what’s wrong with education. Administrators dominate, aided and abetted by teacher’s unions,  to decide what’s right to teach—while parents are either pushed aside—or choose to abdicate their role. 
 
CHARTER SCHOOLS SUCCESS MAKES THEM A POLITICAL TARGET. Charter schools work, which make them a big political target! Teacher’s unions don’t work for better education! It’s as simple as that. Upcoming SCOTUS rulings can have a big impact to help. Educating children does not mean Indoctrinating them. Facts matter, not biased opinions.
 
US POPULATION GROWTH STAGNATES Whether by choice (Covid, abortion or social changes) a smaller population can’t grow the US economy. When the big govt. Nanny State makes it more lucrative to sit home than to work, the US (American) work ethic suffers and dies. Only if the wave of illegal immigrants can be funneled into a job-filling,  value-creating population boost this get fixed. Otherwise demographics are destiny.
 
WHITE HOUSE AIMS TO BOOST THE WORKFORCE, but is doing it by more welfare/deficit spending even on elder care and child care, is not the solution. Making work noble, patriotic and rewarding is the way to progress. The White House occupant and his party advisors don’t get that. They believe in big Government, financial payments (bribes), and not the competitive free enterprise system that supported American prosperity and growth!
 
THE BATTLE OVER WORK AND WELFARE HAS States fighting back against the Biden drive to Increase dependency.  The falling labor participation rate is the clue and metric that reveals the policy flaws. The Biden administration is hindering states whose policies work.
 
FINALLY, CHINA MAY BE RUNNING OUT OF MONEY. PUTIN MAY BE RUNNING OUT OF AMMO. Everything the US can do to worsen their problems is good. Unfortunately, the President's family is beholden to China. Finally he’s come around to helping Ukraine. If only Biden would resume American energy independence policies (Trump's) that he reversed, and quit chasing the impossible dreams of "all renewables," it would quickly rejuvenate America.
 
HIDDEN INFLATION (NOT IN THE NUMBERS). Theft via shrink in retail is rampant, costing millions. Like unpunished crime in American big cities (catch & release), it needs to be reined in. Marketing deception via package contents reduction should require (at least) a prominent package banner— NEW, REDUCED CONTENT PACKAGE! That’s aa crude idea but may be the only way to thwart “inflation via deception” in packaging. 
 
GOP MUST UNIFY, START FIGHTING (DEMS) TOGETHER, INSTEAD OF EACH OTHER. Do the right things for American prosperity.  Take advantage of EARLY VOTING to counter Dems, stop their “ballot harvesting” and bring   generation of GOP leaders—not Trump and his cronies. Trump cannot win in 2024, and IF he outspends to get a GOP nomination to run (against an even older, more impaired version of Biden) American voters (& GOP, Senatorial hopefuls) will face a terrible choice in 2024!
 
That’s as blunt a year-end “shopping list of Changing How America Works” as I can give—in hopes of a truly Happy New Year for all Americans. If our elected representatives work together for the good of America and Americans—it can be fixed. 
But will they? Doubtful!  Here’s hoping for the best, and a whole new generation of leaders.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
John 
 
 
 

 

Posted at 04:46 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: China, Education, Fiscal Policy, Foreign policy, gender, Immigration, Inflation, LGBTQ, McCarthy, Middle East, Pelosi, Putin, Russia, Spending, Taiwan, Ukraine, Unions, Woke, Xi

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November 30, 2022

THE ENTERPRISE—BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT WE HAVE—FIX AMERICA’s FLAWS AND BUILD ON ITS STRENGTHS.

A RAILROAD STRIKE WOULD BE DEVASTATING TO THE US ECONOMY— HOPEFULLY IT CAN BE AVERTED. 
Few people realize how dependent America is on transportation: autos, planes,  trains, and trucks. The increase in cost of diesel fuel due to mismanagement of energy in the United States, is one of the major drivers of hidden inflation. Hurricane Ian revealed what kind of a problem electric cars are when trying to evacuate from a devastating storm. 
 
“Got a little portable electricity to get me going again?” When you run out of electricity, it’s harder to bring a “gallon” of extra electricity, to get you going again.(EVs lack enough charging stations, and may spawn a new industry: portable “out of fuel” batteries to solve this. Batteries are heavy and require regular charging.) Otherwise, electric cars can be stranded, main batteries depleted, clogging the highways. Salt water flooding of cars (any kind) full of computer chips ruins them too. Plus the big lithium auto batteries can become a fire hazard. 
.
RED WAVE WAS “TRUMPED” WITH WEAK CANDIDATES, AND BEATEN BY BIDEN’S PHONY TUITION REIMBURSEMENT (Known by Biden’s advisors to be soon-rejected by SCOTUS as un-Constitutional.)

What happened to the "red wave?” It was “Trumped" with his handpicked weak candidates aided by the furor over abortion. President Biden also told everyone that student loans were going to be forgiven, even though he knew that the Supreme Court was going to rule them unconstitutional. That bought about 30 million Democratic votes from young people. This is more than enough, when distributed across the states, to stop the “red wave.”

 
PRESIDENT BIDEN AT AGE 80 AT LEAST AS CONFUSED AS HE WAS AT 79.
Fortunately, Dr. Jill keeps close tabs on him so he doesn’t wander off into a crowd and start doing ad lib. interviews, which are usually. disasters.
 
DISNEY HAS TROUBLE. BOB IGER’s HAND PICKED SUCCESSOR, BOB CHAPEK DIDN’T AGREE WITH WHAT HE WAS DOING—& REVERSED COURSE ON MANY IGER IDEAS. 
Succession plans in the executive suite are very difficult and can lead to confusion and conflicting signals when the successor has a different strategic or philosophical direction than the previous CEO. That’s what seems to have happened at Disney. The result is that Iger is back, and will find the job is even more difficult than when he left it, because of Chapek’s reversals.  Disney’s animated releases recently have bombed (losing money) and more competitors entered the streaming market than Disney imagined, causing huge losses in its streaming business.
 
ELON MUSK HAS "THROWN DOWN THE GAUNTLET” TO THOSE WHO DON’T WANT TO WORK HARD TO SUCCEED AT TWITTER. THIS IS NOTHING NEW. MUSK ALSO DID IT AT SPACEX AND AT TESLA. It worked both of those places. Will it work at Twitter?There will be a mass exodus of the “snowflakes" who think work is supposed to be a party. Show up occasionally and take it easy a lot. It won’t be that way now at Twitter when Musk has invested $40+ billion of his money. Say goodbye to the people who don’t want to work.
 
"QUIET QUITTING" IS THE NEW FAD. The problem is quitters don’t win; they usually lose, and companies are better off without them. A  generation or two (X & Z?) raised by "helicopter parents,) think that the world isn’t competitive and owes them a living. It doesn’t. (They figure that out after they quit!)
 
CLOTHES MAY NOT MAKE THE MAN OR WOMAN, BUT THEY REVEAL A LOT ABOUT THE PERSON. There are only a few sure-fire clues to someone who is poorly organized, lazy or sloppy. How they dress, how they keep their vehicles, office space or home are good clues—and how they work (also sloppy). Pay attention to those and “weed them out."
 
FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE THE FLOOD OF IMMIGRANTS PRODUCTIVELY. Nobody in Washington seems to know what to do with the flood of immigrants coming across American borders. In decades gone by, immigrants were assimilated into the workforce and became a source of productive labor for generations. But it’s not happening again—not yet anyway. Nobody in charge (right now) has a clue about how to do it. Somebody needs to figure this out. Maybe if someone would show President Biden and VP Harris where the border is and what the border mess looks, like they might realize they have created a huge problem (that could have been an opportunity.)
 
PUT YOUR SMART PHONE AWAY AT SCHOOL AT THE DINNER TABLE AND WALKING IN TRAFFIC. Jaywalking used to be a ticketable violation for crossing traffice at the wrong place, or against signals. Maybe it should be again—but a new offense for walking across heavily traveled streets while looking at your cell phone; it might save lives. Confiscate the phone. Charge $50-100 fine to get it back. See what happens.
 
ARE YOU OLDER AND WISER BOTH. Older and wiser used to be a popular term. Now, it’s only accurate if the older people become wiser on how things have changed, which includes a whole lot of technology. Sometimes being older means use your experience, at others it means you resist new ideas, or fail to use new solutions. That’s not good.  Mentoring has been perceived as something that older people do with younger ones. Maybe we should turn that around and have younger people mentor older people on how to use and adapt the latest technology. 
 
TOO MUCH TECH, NOT ENOUGH TALK. Future with Alvin Toffler, using to phrases like “high-tech, high touch” to define how technology was going to require human intervention to maximize its potential?  What is happened in our tech heavy society is the human interaction has been reduced to a few words on a screen instead of the 75 to 90% of communications that are nonverbal.  It’s too easy to say wrong, hurtful or inappropriate things in a digital message, where there’s no human signal what the tone of the intended meaning was. Popular Zoom video calls lose a lot of the nonverbal communications by putting people in small video boxes on the screen. That’s a problem. A common  misuse of technology is:;”I broke up with him or her by sending a text message!” How sad that is.
 
When are the losers by states? LOSERS NEW YORK, ILLINOIS, CALIFORNIA. Population is leaving rapidly moving mostly to the South or south eastern United States. WINNERS TEXAS, FLORIDA, OHIO. Some of you are surprised that Ohio was included with the two obvious big winners, Texas, and Florida, but impact jobs and population are heading to Ohio in spite of with winter weather.  The mass migration to the south central and south east United States, at least partly due to the weather, but a great deal due to the more conservative, political climate, and right to work laws in many of those states.
 
One thing is evident a lot of people think the United States of America is a good place to live. The evidence is how many people keep flooding across our borders to come here because in spite of many problems, it is still the greatest land of opportunity on earth.
 
ON THIS WEEK, FOLLOWING THANKSGIVING, TAKE A MINUTE TO THINK ABOUT HOW THANKFUL WE SHOULD BE—FOR WHAT WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY—AND HOW FEW OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD HAVE WHAT THE USA HAS TO OFFER.
 
BEST, JOHN

 

Posted at 01:46 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: Biden, Border, California, Dr. Jill, Elon Musk, EV, Florida, Harris, Illinois, Immigrants, New York, Ohio, Railroad, Red Wave, Smartphone, Texas, Trumped

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October 18, 2022

THE ENTERPRISE—HEADLINES—UPCOMING ELECTIONS, ECONOMIC MISMANAGEMENT, INFLATION, CRIME, BORDER CHAOS, FAILING EDUCATIONS, & CONTINUING LEADERSHIP PROBLEMS

DECADES AGO (1998 & 2006) I WROTE "CHANGING THE WAY AMERICA WORKS”--(AND THE WAY PEOPLE WORK.) 
At that time I was drafting a book, of the same name, which remains unpublished.  That title morphed into a series of articles, and a discussion topic at The Reunion Conference™ a Roundtable I hosted annually from 1997 to 2013. Here we are, another decade later, and see how much has changed, and yet how much remains the same.
 
Download ARTICLE-Changing the Way America Works
 
Starting in 2020, COVID caused the American people to realize they could change their workplace from an office or a job location to their home. In many cases, they could avoid long commutes, high gas prices and the watchful eyes of management—and still get their job done in less time than before—creating free personal time to use as they wanted. This led to the worker preference for Work-at-home, and made managers wonder if this was a good idea. How could they manage and control this widely distributed workforce and its workplaces?
 
CULTURE IN WORKPLACES CHANGED, AS DID FREEDOM TO WORK AT A NEW PACE—HIGHLY VARIABLE, LESS REGIMENTED
But it’s hard to collaborate on getting things done when people are widely distributed, or even know if collaboration is occurring. For the first time in generations, workers are more measured by how, when and if the jobs get done. That’s not a bad thing—until the jobs that required collaborative efforts on defined time frames don’t get done. Who is to blame? Workers? Management? Both? Or the new way of working?
 
PEOPLE IN CERTAIN KINDS OF JOBS BEGAN TO REALIZE THAT THEY NO LONGER HAD TO LIVE AND WORK IN A DEFINED PLACE—AN OFFICE COMPLEX, WITH CUBICLES, AND CONTROL
Some kinds of work had to be done where the customers were—personal service jobs were especially customer-location-delivery sensitive. The entire restaurant & dining out industry changed a lot. Remote ordering via tablets grew, but someone had to deliver the food. A whole industry of food delivery arose.  Without large offices full of employees, there was no lunch-time rush, and cocktail hours changed too. The “Great Migration” has begun (I don’t mean immigrants from outside our borders—but that too has begun). I mean the migration of value adding people and companies out of failing cities and states led by NY, CA, and IL, but those three are far from the only ones—moving to places like TX, FL and even OH and a host of sensible Midwestern and South Central states and cities.
 
NEW FORMS OF SELF-SERVICE EXPLODED
What changed very little was personal services like beauty salons, barber shops, etc. because the service-delivery person and the customer needed to be in the same place at the same time. Not so with many other jobs, and customers. Air travel shopped, reserved and ticketed by electronic devices—smart phones, tablets, personal computers. DIY pump and pay at the gas station (until or unless gas stations get replaced by EV charging stations—another topic entirely). Grocery stores still exist where people “pick & pack & pay for” their groceries—or simply order electronically and have them delivered to a huge Work-At-Home society. Many jobs previously done by people are now done by the customers using electronic devices or smart swipe-insert-or tap credit cards.
 
HUMAN WORKER-CUSTOMER  INTERACTION IN THIS NEW MODEL IS REDUCED DRAMATICALLY
With no “boss” at the “office” people work when they want (within boundaries and deadlines), and often practice “quiet quitting,” disappearing from jobs only to be discovered when no one answers the phone or computer or does the work at all. When workers are no longer tied to the jobs and people they serve, more changes. Companies no longer must stay in locations that are not “company-friendly” and the "great migration" is underway. Why live in traffic clogged cities, to work in large office buildings, requiring expensive commutes (trains or cars) and incur big fees including parking the car. Workers found an hour or two per day free—not trapped in traffic, listening to radios in their cars or working on electronic devices on a commuter train. 
 
THE DECENTRALIZATION AND MOBILIZATION AND FLEXIBILITY OF SO MANY OTHER PARTS OF WORK & LIFE ARE NOW CHANGED, NEVER TO BECOME THE SAME AGAIN
Working women, now over half of the work force, find new child-care solutions when working at home. It’s possible to change diapers or get kids off to school, while on Bluetooth wireless ear buds, talking to a colleague at “work.” Unlike prior periods, Immigration is totally out of control. The America that welcomed LEGAL immigrants in the past, who were assimilated, became part of the fabric of the US economy and an expanded workforce. Not in 2022. Immigration is now a flood of an uncontrolled, unmanaged and illegal/undocumented immigrants.
 
AS SOCIETY CHANGES, GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO CHANGE—LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS GROW IN IMPORTANCE—FLEXIBILITY, ADAPTABILITY & CONSENSUS BASED COLLABORATION BECOMES EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.  
 
HOW ARE WE DOING IN AMERICA’S NEW ENVIRONMENT?   A HEADLINE GLIMPSE AT AMERICA’S SITUATION LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE MID-TERM ELECTIONS SAYS, “NOT VERY WELL AT ALL.”  MANAGEMENT IS NOT GOOD. LEADERSHIP IS EVEN WORSE. A MASSIVE LEADERSHIP CHANGE IS NEEDED—AND COMING—IN THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS!

"BIDEN’S MAKE-BELIEVE VICTORY OVER INFLATION"—A Bizarro world detached from reality.
Don’t turn on the TV for too long. You’ll wonder what reality America’s elected leaders are living in these days. President Joe Biden and his administration seem to be totally lost in an alternate reality, one in which they are declaring success of their misguided policies that are in fact, not making things better. The facts say that those policies are making everything worse. The old Seinfeld TV show in 1996 called it a “Bizarro" universe in which everything seems normal, but nothing is really normal at all—quite the opposite.

“ROBUST ECONOMY WEAKENS MARKETS OUTLOOK”—A contradiction in itself, this headline sums it up. The economy seems conflicted; growing and struggling to find enough workers, and each upset causes the stock market to either dive or climb—illogically. The inept Biden’s border “czar” is the equally inept VP Kamala Harris, who has yet to even visit America’s southern border to experience the chaos there. Immigrants flood into the US by the millions, with no idea where they will go or what they will do, but somehow believing it’s a better place to be. However, the Fed continues trying to slow inflation by crushing the economy with higher interest rates, forcing the country into a needless recession.

AMERICA’S LARGEST STATES AND CITIES ARE HOTBEDS OF REBELLION AND CRIME (“defund the Police”). Experience has proven that Democrats in control of those cities and states cannot (and do not) lead or manage the states or cities well at all. They do, however, convince the largely poor, misinformed/uninformed populace to vote them into office. How? The same way Biden and the Dems have caused the country’s economic malaise: throw taxpayer money at problems, and give handouts to keep the poorly educated in intellectual/factual dependence, (because Dems run the schools there too). This places the people in a new form of economic dependence—“monetary slavery.” Tragic, but true! Think about it.

BIG MEDIA IS AS GUILTY AS POLITICIANS FOR AMERICA’S WOES
The power of the mainstream media and its control over the news is at the heart of the problem as much as poor leadership. Media is critical to political success in getting elected. News media was once a form of oversight—checks and balances—on political power. Not any more. Media is now part of the problem. Insulated by long-standing immunity from prosecution, intended to offer them the ability to “tell the truth about news,” that has now been an easy protection for (disguising) biased opinions as real news. The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) will be reviewing that abuse in its upcoming issues.
 
IMMIGRATION CONTROL IS A MISNOMER—AN OXYMORON—BECAUSE THERE IS LESS AND LESS CONTROL OF THE ANNUAL 4 MILLION PLUS UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS—SINCE BIDEN THREW OPEN AMERICA’S BORDERS AND PUT HIS INEPT VP KAMALA HARRIS "IN CHARGE OF BORDER CONTROL” A PLACE SHE’S NEVER EVEN VISITED
 
In a word, immigration is a huge disaster, ranking along with Biden’s big three great failures: 1) Immigration control,  2) Exit from Afghanistan & Loss of respect globally, and 3) Rampant Inflation. Foreign Policy could be listed as a fourth failure, but there aren’t any rational Foreign policies to examine (except random reaction and then retraction.) 
 
Biden has failed in every way, as he falls further and further into cognitive decline with no viable replacement (in the VP spot). President Biden (the compromise “not-Trump”) candidate, and his Teleprompter script writers, have failed to realize that dithering, blustering, misspeaking and then correcting (to a different error) is neither good leadership nor good management.
 
I will repeat this line: A MASSIVE LEADERSHIP CHANGE IS NEEDED—AND IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS!
 
AN VALUABLE READING RECOMMENDATION: This link is to the Tuchfarber Report. It is full of good info, well thought out and factually sound. READ IT—before you vote. (FYI,  I subscribed months ago, and suggest that you do too.)
 
 
A FINAL TOPIC, ONE THAT GETS FAR TOO LITTLE ATTENTION: THE EDUCATION OF AMERICA’S YOUTH.
Shutting down America’s schools (impetus, teacher’s unions who didn’t want them to stay open due to Covid risk) has set back American youth at all levels—by several years—from a level that was weak to begin with. Disclosure: I am a member of Columbus Rotary, and our club is trying to help students in Columbus City Schools, who were behind before Covid, and are now further behind. I recently found articles describing a small study showing that reading aloud in primary grades (3 & 4 especially.) helped literacy and learning in many ways. 
 
Just Google https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Benefits+of+Reading+aloud+for+3rd+graders&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8  This is a perfect example of Occam’s Razor at work. Occam’s Razor is a theory that the simplest, most direct solution is usually the best one. The cost is negligible, the benefits are huge. Combine this with school vouchers to enable its widest use, and watch the results improve. Our Rotary Club has been providing 5000+ Dictionaries, hand deliv
 
ELECTIONS ARE LESS THAN 4 WEEKS AWAY.
Research candidates, think, consider, decide and then VOTE!
 
IT’S TIME WE CHANGED HOW AMERICA WORKS—AND HOW IT THINKS ABOUT IMPORTANT ISSUES.
 
JOHN

Posted at 03:11 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: Afghanistan, Biden, CA, Covid, Education, EV, FL, Harris, IL, Immigration, Inflation, Migration, NY, Offices, OH, Quiet Quitting, Trump, TX, Work-At-Home, Workplaces

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September 30, 2022

SPECIAL EDITION OF THE ENTERPRISE—DON’T BE FOOLED BY “ACTOR” (TIM RYAN) PRETENDING TO BE A MODERATE REPUBLICAN

From: John Mariotti <[email protected]>
Subject: SPECIAL EDITION OF THE ENTERPRISE—DON’T BE FOOLED BY “ACTOR” (TIM RYAN) PRETENDING TO BE A MODERATE REPUBLICAN
Date: September 30, 2022 at 10:31:25 AM EDT
Democrat OH Senate Candidate Tim Ryan has been flooding the TV with him playing a role of a politician that’s nothing like how he acts when elected.    Talk like a “middle of the road moderate” hoping to fool enough people to get elected.  His behavior when he’s actually in office is nothing like the TV character you see him pretending to be!
 
Tim Ryan’s ads sound like he started with what J. D. Vance might have been preparing, and claim he’d oppose the Democrat Party at every turn.  Except the facts are,  In the past, Tim Ryan voted 100 percent with the Pelosi/Democrat party.  He even tried to unseat Pelosi as Speaker of the House!  The “actor" in Ryan’s ads doesn’t talk about that.  He’s THE GREAT PRETENDER—"Taxing Tim Ryan!"
 
Worse yet, Ryan’s ads blame J. D. Vance for not taking actions/positions on things Vance couldn’t do yet—because he’s not in office—YET!  Ryan HAS been in office, so why hasn’t he done the things his negative ads accuse Vance of not doing?
 
So, who is this guy acting like something he isn’t? A typical politician. A ROLE PLAYER who can lie and promise whatever it takes to seem like a good choice. Then get into office and let his true liberal Democrat colors show! Raise taxes & add regulations for big government control. A true-blue Democrat. FYI—The same thing is being done in the Colorado governor’s race, where Joe O’Dea, the Republican running on “balanced” principles, is opposing Michael Bennett, a Democrat (voting record—heavily Democrat) posing as a moderate conservative. It’s a trick as old as time!
 
Once you know how to recognize this trick, you see it clearly (it is happening a lot as Democrats run from the past 20 month of Biden-Harris-Democrat mistakes and folly.) Tim Ryan figured if it worked for Biden from his basement—e.g., when he claimed he had a plan to slow Covid. He did follow all that President Trump had already underway…. (Operation Warp Speed to get vaccines faster than ever imaginable, then flood the country with “free” shots, which Trump had already ordered.)
 
Don’t let these “Great Pretender” Democrats fool American voters with their bogus acts! Tell others about their tricks! Most large US cities & states that are Democrat controlled are a mess—failing financially, crime rampant,and demonstrations always planned to  deny the negative impact of Democrat policies on America: inflation, recession, border crisis, increased taxes, and on, and on. 
 
Your  future depends on seeing through their lies and misleading campaigns by acting one way vs. later behaving an entirely different way! It’s the Democrats only strategy to cover multiple mistakes—claim they didn’t mean to do it! Time to throw them out!
More as Election Day comes closer!
John
 
PS: First— reclaim House & Senate majorities—then figure out what to do about a failing President, (and the next in line VP that’s also inept!)
 
 

 

Posted at 10:47 AM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: Biden, border problems, Democrat, Harris, Inflation, Pelosi, Recession, Ryan, tax increases, Vance

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September 21, 2022

HARD TO DECIDE WHAT TO COVER IN WHAT ORDER—JUST UNDER 2 MONTHS BEFORE ELECTIONS—LOTS OF TOPICS

HARD TO DECIDE WHAT TO COVER IN WHAT ORDER—JUST UNDER 2 MONTHS BEFORE ELECTIONS—LOTS OF TOPICS
Please make sure you’re all set to vote—registered, requested absentee ballot if needed, and aware of the key races & candidates. This is your chance to elect better leaders 
 
START WITH HEADLINES & COMMENTS ON THOSE
—Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan Gambit Reshapes Political Risk in Asia—She putting all Americans at risk to show she’s more powerful than our inept President Biden. That’s why the Chinese reacted so strongly. They sense an American leadership weakness.
 
—The Coming War Over Taiwan—Between Biden’s dithering over how much military support to give Ukraine (like sending powerful weapons with important features like "longer range” disabled)—he’s trying to please everyone and not confront Putin in a bigger fight. Putin only understands strength & unity of purpose. Ukraine is proving that.
 
—Ukraine War Is a Boon to North Korea—the strength of Kim Jong Un of N. Korea only comes from hiding behind bigger allies: China & Russia. He’s volatile and dangerous. Biden has no effective policy for dealing with Un & North Korea.
 
—Biden’s Bluto Moment—A Half-Trillion-Dollar Executive Coup—Debt Plan Tests Emergency Powers—Student Loans and the National Debt—Biden can only seem powerful by breaking the law (Constitution) and blustering (from his TelePrompter) vs. dithering. “Bribes” like these are his favorites, even those hidden in Executive Orders that SCOTUS finds unconstitutional. Then his cast of liars say it’s all paid for “somehow”—but we know that can’t be true. Everyday Americans also know better!
 
—Student Loan Forgiveness Raises a Basic Question About College—Not everyone needs a college degree! Many (most) necessary jobs require practical training and a “Pathway“ to existing jobs in trades, professions, etc., and some of those who didn’t start toward a degree, migrate into the equivalent. During the 2020 GOP primaries, Sen. Marco Rubio said it well, “America needs more plumbers and fewer philosophers!”
 
—Biden Touts Climate Law, GOP Focuses on Economy—The Coming Global Crisis of Climate Policy—The hoax panic about climate change is unraveling as more and more countries find that reliance on non-fossil fuels is an attractive delusion. It can’t be done in any foreseeable time frame at anything less than extravagant costs. Edicts and mandates don’t make good things happen. They create unforeseen and unmanageable chaos.
 
—Solar-Panel Maker To Put $1-Billion Into New U.S. Plant—America Is Getting Battery Plants—It Also Needs Mines—The Sun Will Keep Shining On Chinese Solar Companies—America needs to invest, but wisely, into new energy technologies. However, if EVs (Electric Vehicles) are so good, why does CA need laws requiring them?
 
—As Population Nears 8 Billion, Some See Peak—pandemics, population control policies and simple personal economics have driven birth rates down below replacement levels in countless countries. Fewer births mean fewer productive workers and slowing economic growth. Longer life-spans mean aging populations, without enough younger workers to support or care for growing numbers of older people. In the USA alone, 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day, and many leave the workforce, further limiting support for growth.
 
—Inflation and the Scariest Economics Paper of 2022—Another Doomsday Scenario Is Looming—Dissecting a Case for a Soft Landing—The article cites the fact that to bring inflation back down to 2%, we may need to tolerate unemployment of 6.5% for two-years!  A so-called "soft landing" to compensate for big-spending inflationary policies will be a" not-so-soft” landing. Many middle and lower wage earners will suffer greatly. The key problem is the inability to “Un-spend” the excessive past years’ inflation drivers--big spending and bad policies.
 
==================
 
America's CORE PROBLEM IS A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM
Too few leaders who are willing and able to do what Reagan did: make tough decisions that put the country’s interest ahead of his own (party’s) more than once. He was a leader who knew what he wanted to accomplish, could keep a broad perspective, and stay on course to get there, in spite of small-minded political foes trying to drag him off course, Phil Gramm described it well, “People have a way of judging a person’s character and knowing when a man is doing right.” Reagan also believed in maintaining a military “margin of safety” as a deterrent to war. Instead, Biden & Democrat Allies continue to talk big,  but do little except continue to shrink America’s margin of safety in military superiority.
 
—Schumer Shrugs as Roe Falls—the budget reconciliation bill provided the Democrats a way to fund abortion. They didn’t even try! They showed their true colors. They’d rather have a hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing campaign policy than to fix what they are complaining—about in the correct way.
 
—Republicans Should Stand for More Than Opposing Democrats—The Not Ready for Prime Time Republicans—Can the U.S. Become Exceptional Again? —to which I say “hell yes,” but only if enough American voters choose elected officials who prefer offering a “hand up” to help them, and not a “hand out” to keep them dependent (trapped in economic slavery). The GOP desperately needs to unify behind a simple agenda of policies and programs to address Americas problems, and then choose courageous leaders who will stay unified. “United we stand; divided we fall.” That famous statement says it all.
 
WE NEED LEADERS WHO WILL “WALK THEIR TALK” but…
In answer to those who ask me about 2024…first I say, “let's concentrate on 2020 and win back Congress!" EXAMPLE: In OH, Democrat Senatorial candidate (Ryan) is flooding the TV with ads slinging “mud” and talking like he’s a middle of the road Republican, His past record shows that when in office he nearly always votes the Democratic Party line, (95%+ of the time.) Can a “leopard change his spots?”  No way. Can Ryan lie in campaign ads, and say what he thinks you want to hear, then trash his opponent (Vance’s) motives? Sure he can—he’s doing it to excess spending Dem Party money coming from outside OH to do it.  DO NOT BELIEVE RYAN’S “ACT." THATS HOW AMERICANS (MISTAKENLY) GOT BIDEN INTO THE WHITE HOUSE
 
FINALLY, YES, I VOTED FOR TRUMP—BOTH TIMES—BECAUSE THE ALTERATIVES WERE WORSE—HILLARY CLINTON & JOE BIDEN (now proving that he is WORSE!)  TRUMP DID WHAT HE SAID HE WOULD DO, AND HE TRIED TO DO IT ALL, THE PROBLEM WAS HOW HE WENT ABOUT DOING IT. (And his personal behavior along the way.)  My concern is that Trump will run again in 2024, and in the process, split the normal American GOP voters, who realize that he did most of what he promised (until Covid came along) and it was working— but the way he did it was “messy or ugly!” 
 
(Even then, Biden’s Covid plan was built totally on Trump’s plan, preparation and execution—"Operation Warp Speed” and all that came after it: vaccine available that fast, would never have happened without Trump pushing it. The rest of Biden’s presidency has been about reversing what Trump did that was working or "buying votes" (with inflation-creating handouts and terrible policy decisions e. g.,botched  Afghanistan exit, uncontrolled border chaos, inflation-creating spending & handouts, bail-free release of criminals, etc. OR simply “dithering” until he was forced into decisions—most of them wrong.
 
But…no matter...because Trump still has the same enemies: the Democrat captive—mainstream media, propaganda-machine attacking him, along with (As we know now) based on lies, Biden’s FBI & DOJ lining up to investigate and pursue him—to no positive outcome!. Trump still has a solid 30-40% “base," that’s not big enough to get elected — and Trump won’t change.  His behavior made him his own worst enemy. There are many people (and media) who still "hate Trump.” (But, his behavior is part of his problem, of who he Is!) 
 
There are NO STRONG DEMOCRAT LEADERS on the horizon, NONE that I’d even consider voting for. 
Certainly not Calif Gov. Newsom or the current Dem party stalwarts like Pelosi, Warren, Sanders, “Beto” O’Rourke, Mayor Pete, et. al. or Dem Governors who can’t even run their own states! Look at the financial messes and crime in big cities/states: NY, NY—LA & SF CA—Seattle, WA—Chicago, IL,  and many, many more.
 
IF I KNEW HOW TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS I’D SAY SO—BUT I DON’T. 
Then what? There is no “none of the above” choice on the ballot? 
 
THE BEST THING WOULD BE FOR TRUMP TO STEP BACK AND SUPPORT A DIFFERENT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE
Who? DeSantis, Haley, Scott, Noem, or who else.  BUT I FEAR HE WON’T DO THAT EITHER. HIS EGO, ANGER, AND RESENTMENT FROM 2020 ARE TOO STRONG FOR THAT.
 
So what to do?  Concentrate on finding the best candidates to vote for in 2022, to take back control of the House (should be possible) and the Senate (may be harder due to Trump-backed candidates who are trailing in races they were expected to win.)
 
IT’S A MESS. MAYBE THE BEST THING TO DO IS FIND THE RIGHT, BEST CANDIDATES, SUPPORT AND VOTE FOR THEM, AND HOPE FOR "DIVINE INTERVENTION" TO FIX THE REST!
 
FOR SOME BETTER IDEAS.
BEST,
JOHN
 
PS: A newsletter I have found to be good, and mostly “fact-based” is: https://tuchfarberreport.com
Check it out,

 

 
 

 

Posted at 11:37 AM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: Biden, China, Climate hoax, Democrat, elections, GOP, Growth, Inflation, N. Korea, Newsom, Pelosi, Putin, Reagan, Recession, Russia, Ryan, Stuent Loans, Taiwan, Ukraine, Un, Unemployment, Vance, Xi

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August 29, 2022

THE ENTERPRISE—PUTIN/XI, PANDEMICS, PERSONALITIES AND PARTISAN POLITICAL POLARIZATION = UNPRECEDENTED PROBLEMS FOR AGING LEADERS



THE US ECONOMY MAY OR MAY NOT BE IN A “RECESSION”—WHO DECIDES THAT?
U.S., recessions are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Business Cycle Dating Committee (BCDC), referred to  as the “official” definition. Though the terms “technical” and “official” are useful shorthand references, not completely accurate. The “technical” definition is less technical than the much more complicated “official” NBER definition, and the “official” definition’s source doesn’t even claim it’s “official.”  “The NBER makes no claim to being the ‘official’ determiner of recession and expansion dates,” said Charles Radin, a spokesman for the organization.”

 
THE US ECONOMY IS “STALLED”—NEITHER GROWING NOR SHRINKING
Some call this “stagflation”, a creative combination of the terms stagnation and inflation. In nature few things can remain unchanging for very  long. They either grow or shrink (and die). Form your own opinion about which is happening in the US right now.

MORE POLITICS—WHY ALWAYS POLITICS
Many times I’m asked, “Why do politics creep into THE ENTERPRISE so often?”
The answer is simple. The pervasive invasion of American lives, the country’s economy, and much more it involves, and has driven politics —and inept leadership—to the top of our minds and news. So many decisions, personal, professional, and moral are influenced (many times negatively) by the growth and over-reach of government in America?

Simply consider several of the men (they were all men!) that have occupied the White House in recent decades. Five Presidents—Bill Clinton (charming but scandalous). —George W. Bush (rich TX Gov., w/Middle-East problems, but handled 911 attack better than expected). —Barack Obama (articulate, multi-racial, but without evidence of real experience, but loved by media ). —Donald Trump (celebrity, famous, decisive but a flawed personality/behavior and hated by media). Finally —Joe Biden (anybody-but-Trump winner of a flawed election, w/zero accomplishments in 40+ years in Senate, a bumbling, confused non-leader.) Worst of all, IF Biden must take a medically/cognitively induced early retirement, his replacement is the poorly chosen, proven incapable VP, Kamala Harris!

Whether you loved some of these presidents or hated them—everyone falls into one of those two camps—this is striking evidence of why America is in a mess. Simply revisit the stated positions of many career politicians (such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, and lots more like him) over the past several decades. Their stated policy positions are littered with diametrically opposite statements. Question: what do partisan politicians stand for! Answer: Whatever they must, to get elected. (How do you think Biden endured more that 4 decades in the Senate? “Flexible positions & politics!”)

WHAT MAKES STRONG LEADERS?
Two of the most powerful traits of excellent leaders are consistency and integrity. Those traits come from reliably saying what they will do and why, and then doing what they said, (and credibly explaining any differences between the two). It’s called  "walking the talk!”  

Is this too much to expect of corporate leaders, government leaders and civic or community leaders? This should be the ultimate litmus test of leadership. Why isn’t it? Because a combination of a malleable media, an apathetic populous, and growing moral decay, has seized America.  Lying is normal and accepted. Cheating is common and usually goes unpunished. Revisionist thinking is rampant, “he or she simply misspoke…”. Really?

Democrats just passed a bill they called the Inflation Reduction Act, which is both misnamed/misguided, and a mistake. Only by creatively manipulating future economic projections dies it reduce inflation. It doesn’t! Plus, no one cares that the country is deeply in debt, and neither political party will do anything but dig the hole deeper. Money created out of thin air and the Fed’s printing press, with no material underpinning, is the very definition of inflation. Why is anyone surprised?

RUSSIA/PUTIN'S INVASION OF UKRAINE—WITH LITTLE ORGANIZED RESISTANCE, UNTIL TOO LATE & XI/CHINA’S AGGRESSIONS (HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, COVID & TAIWAN/SOUTH CHINA SEA .)
These two huge and bold aggressor countries have started global spread of evil. Consider this well known statement:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It’s a quote routinely attributed to Edmund Burke. Apparently, he never uttered these words. At best, the quote can be traced back to John Stuart Mill, who delivered an 1867 inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews and stated: “Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. ... He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

Corporate executives are equally at fault.  VW falsified emissions reporting for fo.  Boeing executives looked the other way while the 737Max was proven dangerous or fatally flawed. Millions of Takata air bags were used by automakers, who knew of their flaws. Lately, Toyota admitted emission reporting flaws. Ethics? Integrity? Nope! Just CYA politics.

Most egregious of all is the Climate Change misinformation still being spread by media, and people, many of them so-called experts, who rely on a mythical calamity to retain their funding.  Only after Obama’s top scientist in the field “bails out” to write an accurate and scathing book (Unsettled, by Stephen Kooning) is it revealed fully how wrong all the Climate Change hysteria is.  
Yes, weather is variably bad and worse at times. People lose lives and property because they insist on building in places known to be vulnerable to regularly recurring natural events—floods, hurricanes, etc.—Weather!  And no, weather is not the same as climate. Climate spans decades and centuries. Weather spans days, weeks and seasons.

IGNORING THE UNANSWERED  QUESTIONS ABOUT ELECTRIC VEHICLES, AND ELECTRIFICATION IN GENERAL
Electrification is not as clean as it is claimed to be; the electricity must be generated somehow, which is usually neither free or clean. The popular EV (Electric Vehicle) and "carbon neutral by 2030" (or even 2050) proclamations are a popular political and aspirational myth. No one knows where all the new electricity and the rare earth elements needed will come from (except maybe China?) and with what consequences. 

No one knows how or where to ecologically dispose of huge worn out auto batteries, giant wind turbines which longer work, and massive (but also worn out) solar panel arrays. Those are unsolved problems of the 2030 — 2050 ill-defined future  (FYI—Only millions of small, high-tech, clean nuclear power plants can do that…but the cost will be enormous! (Plus NIMBY—Not In My Back Yard) resistance comes into the decision.)

Leave it to California, the land of impossible extremes (e.g.,the mulli-bilion-dollar train to nowhere) just weighed in with legislation banning gasoline cars and trucks in 2035. In 13 years, the Hollywood glitterati, celebs, corporate execs and politicians will all be riding in EV Limos, while the flood of illegals “ into the “sanctuary statedoes all the real work. I wonder what will fuel all the trucks that serve businesses? No diesel, no gas. (if only they could run on BS and booze?)

OFFICES ARE STRUGGLING BECAUSE THE PANDEMIC EXPOSED HOW MANY OTHER WAYS BUSINESS COULD BE CONDUCTED
When people are motivated to do the work in less time, and use the leftover time for personal things, that’s a powerful motivation. When it includes avoiding 30 minute commutes using $4-5/ gal. gas, the incentive grows.  If it reduces them to being “supervised” by a micro-manager, who know less about the work than the workers do, the incentives to work at home are immense. Requiring partial attendance is a good idea, especially if the workforce participates in the decisions about when, for how long, why, and how.

What’s  lost in a work at home decision? Collaboration. Face to face interaction and teamwork. Camaraderie of a positive culture. What enables those benefits? Good, engaging, and positive leadership. Ask yourself, when is that present, and when is it absent? Why? Will some people slack off? Sure. Will they miss deadlines, fail on assignment agreed to, yes. When those symptoms show up leaders who have put in place measurable goals, documentation of who will do what, by when, and how much—thoee leaders must lead, guide, clarify, and require accountability. What a unique concept.🙄

WHAT TO DO ?
Choose leaders much more carefully, and then support them, elect them, and stay in touch to hold them accountable. Don’t be afraid to stand on principles and debate issues. Care about people and use common sense and the facts, when making decisions. Find consensus between parties on what is best for America and Americans—not for Dem or GOP—for the common good. Be financially responsible about spending and quit running up deficits by printing money that’s worth less and less due to inflation.

AFTER ALL THAT, WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT AND HOPE FOR… Facts, truth, strong, positive leadership, pride in accomplishments and a return of the great American work ethic.

Jack Webb, in the old TV show, Dragnet, always said: “The facts, just the facts…”  but the facts are inconvenient things. They are often at odds with beliefs, hopes, wishes and selfish agendas.
But be careful…The famous line spoken to Tom Cruise, by Jack Nicholson in the movie A Few Good Men comes to mind:  
“You want the truth? …You can’t handle the truth!”

And let's all follow the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”

Celebrate “Labor Day” —in recognition of all the fine Americans who are still working for a living and to create wealth—(even though they now number only about half of all American🥺).

God Bless America.
JOHN

PS: Finally, a brand new English word that describes not only the present but our future:

 INEPTOCRACY - A DEFINITION

 Ineptocracy(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead, are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.



Posted at 08:35 PM in WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | | Comments (0)

Tags: CALIFORNIA, China, Covid, EVs, inflation, leadership, Pandemic, politics, Putin, Russia, stagflation, Taiwan, Ukraine, Xi

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