Lucas was a basketball player back when I was much younger—he went to Ohio State, and was a year older than me. I went to Bradley (too short to play forward at 6’1/2”. Lucas was 6’9”). In those days top 3 teams in the NCAA were Ohio State (notables:Lucas, John Havlicek, and Bobby Knight), Cincinnati (Oscar 'Big O' Robertson, and Bradley (Chet “the jet” Walker) Why is he a legend?
I’VE STALLED WRITING THIS EDITION FOR WEEKS
Hoping that some renewed sense of perspective and sanity would permeate our American society. It hasn’t and I fear is unlikely to do so. Polarization between left and right, liberal and conservative and Republicans and Democrats just grows worse and worse. Now all I hear is “impeachment,” for what seem like normal give & take between country leaders when Trump is doing it, but was no big deal when Obama was exposed doing the same or similar things (he cleverly added some layers for deniability, but was caught tell Putin to wait unless he was reelected and he’d have for flexibility in what he could do for him.
Unlike our President who calls it all “fake news,” when it is a coordinated campaign of the mainstream media and the Democratic party to flood the media with lies and spin until the America people think it must be the truth because so many news organizations are reporting it. But—not the WSJ or Fox New, or most of conservative (Limbaugh, et. al.) talk radio! FAcebook has even banned Prager U. posts because they are too conservative (translation: “not liberal or socialist).
With this media hype and the normal human tendency to read and reinforce what we want to believe—instead of keeping an open mind and weighing the issues and actions on a balanced, logical and rational basis—like people who want to collaborate to find solutions instead of making the problems worse and yelling louder about them.
OUR LEADERS ARE MAKING IT WORSE
I voted for Donald Trump and I’d do it again over the awful opponent, Hillary Clinton. Now as the GOP had 4 years ago, we have a circus act of candidates. Are they all clowns? Heck no. Most of them are fairly smart people, who have a very different idea about what America’s direction should be from what it currently is. Is Trump part of the problem? Absolutely! But he’s also part of the solution.
Somehow, amidst if incendiary and narcissistic Tweets, he has managed to use a parade of his own choosing, to craft policies that have made America more prosperous, stronger abroad (albeit less well liked than the articulate, yet apologetic, pacifist Barack Obama that preceded him.) Congressional leaders are making it worse too.
The Democratic leaders seem to inherited Trump’s disregard for factual evidence and choose demagoguery and incendiary obstruction—of almost everything GOP/Trump proposes. The GOP leadership is only a little better, because they are letting Trump roil the waters and keeping their heads down as much as possible (Mitch McConnell excluded—he’s doing his best Harry Reid impression, blocking anything and everything the opposing party wants the Senate to debate.)
WHAT BECAME OF ELECTED LEADERS WHO COLLABORATE TO DO FIND CONSENSUS AND DO WHAT’S BEST FOR AMERICA—ALL AMERICANS?
Trump’s behavior ranges from sort of tolerable to totally intolerable. Ironically, his policies and how they impact the USA, and its government are mostly effective, usually much more moderate than this Tweets and speechifying, and in the view of most moderates of the GOP brand, doing the right things.
Of course the liberals are beside themselves. First they don’t accept that Trump should even be president, after all, he was only elected by the Constitutionally mandated Electoral College (not by the popular vote, distorted by huge California and big city Democratic votes—of course these people like the Democrats, because their representatives promise (and try to deliver) "free everything" to all those who reject the old-fashioned idea of earning a living and abiding by the laws of the land.
I’M CONVINCED THAT IF THE ISSUE OF WHETHER THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST AND SETS IN THE WEST WERE A POLITICAL ISSUE…
The political polarization would continue into gridlock—debate on what “rises and sets” means. GOP would form a committee to study and observe it, then publish factual results
Dems would investigate the GOP committee for bias, then craft a bill to spend trillions to allow government control of which way the earth rotates, but all “free” except higher taxes on the rich.
CONSIDER FOR A MOMENT WHO TRUMP BEAT IN 2016
What Could have been the BEST EVER HILLARY EMAIL I'm still trying to figure out how I lost the election.
I thought we had the thing bought and paid for!
Was it the Russian Uranium Deal?
Was it Wikileaks?
Was it Podesta’s Emails?
Was it Comey’s Was it having a sexual predator as a husband?
Was it Huma Abedin’s sexual predator husband Anthony Weiner?
Was it because the Clinton Foundation ripped off Haiti?
Was it subpoena violations?
Was it the congressional testimony lies?
Was it the corrupt Clinton Foundation?
Was it the Benghazi fiasco?
Was it pay for play?
Was it being recorded laughing when I got a child rapist off when I was an attorney?
Was it the Travel Gate scandal?
Was it the Whitewater scandal?
Was it the Cattle Gate scandal?
Was it the Trooper-Gate scandal?
Was it the $15 million for Chelsea's apartment bought with Clinton Foundation money?
Or my husband's interference with Loretta Lynch & the investigation?
Or when I happily accepted the stolen debate questions given to me by CNN?
Or my own secret server in my house and my disdain for classified information?
Or deleting 30,000 emails after I was told not to?
Or having my cell phones and computers destroyed with hammers and Bleach-bit?
Was it the Seth Rich murder?
Was it the Vince Foster murder.
Was it the Gennifer Flowers assault & settlement?
Was it the $800,000 Paula Jones settlement?
Was it calling half the United States deplorable?
Was it my underhanded treatment of Bernie Sanders?
Was it Bill's impeachment?
Was it the lie I told about being under sniper fire in Bosnia?
Was it the $10 million I received for the pardon of Marc Rich?
Or the $6 BILLION lost while I was in charge of the State Dept.?
Or was it because I’m perceived as a hateful, lying, power-hungry, overly ambitious, greedy,
and nasty person?
Gee, I just can't seem to put my finger on it!
NOW CONSIDER THE CURRENT CAST OF CHARACTERS AND UNDERSTAND WHY THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO PUT IMPEACHMENT FRONT AND CENTER.
IF THIS IS THE BEST ASSORTMENT OF LEADERS WE CAN FIND—GOD HELP US!
Consider the three Democratic front runners gracing the debate stage to vilify Trump and come up with every form of Big Government freebie imaginable. (I’ve excluded the irresponsible “AOC” and her “Squad" who seem like a group of high schoolers, who finally escaped from detention, after reading all the works of Karl Marx and assorted other Socialist extremists, and now grabbed the PA system microphone to spout their unique brand of revolutionism. In this case, the liberal mainstream media (90% of the big media are liberal left-leaning) are providing the PA microphone and video to the entire country and world.
What the saner part of American must think of this, I have no idea. Everybody loves news about disasters, and that’s what the Democrats (with an boost from President Trump’s jibes) are providing.
THE FRONT RUNNER—EGAD
Here are our three:
1) Raving and ranting Bernie—make everything free, a right no matter that there isn’t enough money to begin to pay for it. His outrage is palpable, and for all those poor gullible youths and socialists, they must be in his thrall. Can his heart hold up?
2) The strict, grimacing academic schoolmarm Warren, lecturing us on all the new policies, programs and ideas she’s dreamed up while waiting to lay down the her new rules. No idea how to pay for it? Of course not. Do you really want her as President? NOT ME!
The two of them would have Americans sign over their paychecks and the Socialists provide everything—until “somebody else’s money” runs out—which it will—FAST.
3) Sleepy, almost moderate sounding, placid Joe, who’s said so many things over his long career, he can no longer keep them all straight. So he mixes and matched those that sort of serve his purpose. He plays slow and loose with the facts every bit as well as Donald Trump—just in a much calmer, soporific presentation. (Including his stern rebuke about getting a Ukrainian out of a key spot or getting no Aid $$
ARE WE LIVING IN “BEING THERE” THE OLD PETER SELLERS MOVIE?
This movie featured middle-aged, simple-minded Chance, who lives in the townhouse of a wealthy old man in
Washington, D.C.. Chance has spent his whole life tending the garden and has never left the property. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television.
Elements of Donald Trump’s research methods (watch Fox news—really?) and Joe Biden’s quiet and error filled recitation of his old positions (fill in the blanks, don’t worry about facts). OMIGOD.
Now the demagogues are actually attacking President Reagan posthumously for flaws no one saw back then, but are re-interpreted to be heinous by the finger pointers. He’s a racist, because he said something 40 years ago that sounds bad now. The more the radical critics dig, the more dirt they can find. That leads to Brett Kavanaugh and the popular approach to anyone in any office that is not deemed suitable—IMPEACH them.
READ WHAT A COUPLE OF DISTINGUISHED COLUMNIST SAID ABOUT THE KAVANAUGH DEBACLE
OK—I HAVE THAT ALL OUT OF MY SYSTEM NOW… ON TO OTHER TOPICS.
Here’s one I can understand only too well—I am part of it.
THE GRAYING OF AMERICA
The number of Americans 65 and older is projected to nearly double by 2060. Here's everything you need to know:
Why does this matter?
America is in the midst of a profound demographic transformation that will render its population significantly older in the years to come. In 2014, the percentage of Americans ages 65 and older was 15 percent — already an all-time high. By 2030, that will rise to 21 percent, and by 2060, a remarkable 24 percent of Americans will be in their golden years.
By 2035, the number of those 65 and older will surpass Americans under age 18 for the first time in the country's history. This graying is already well underway. In 1970, the median American age was 28.1 years. Forty-six years later, in 2016, the median age was 37.9.
As the median age continues to advance, it could have transformational consequences for large swaths of American life, including the workforce, the economy, the solvency of the social safety net — even the way sidewalks are engineered.
What's driving this transformation?
A confluence of factors. Americans are not only living longer — one born in 1900 could expect only 47.3 years — but fewer of them are being born. In 2018, the crop of newborns was the lowest since 1986 — about 3.78 million, continuing a downward trend that some are now labeling "the baby bust.”
The dramatic birth-rate decline is occurring at the same time that America's second-largest generation — the 77 million–strong Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 — are moving into old age. Boomers are now turning 65 at a rate of between 8,000 to 10,000 a day; by 2030, all of them will be older than 65. In the face of these statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau has sounded the alarm, calling 2030 a "demographic turning point" for the country.
Why else is 2030 significant?
It's the year when America's so-called dependency ratio — or the percentage of nonworking citizens who rely on those who are employed — will exceed 70 percent. This will have profound consequences for Social Security and Medicare, the former of which is now projected to exhaust its $2.9 trillion reserve by 2035. (At that point, unless Congress increases taxes or cuts benefits, only payroll taxes from a shrinking workforce would finance the program, and benefits would likely be reduced by 20 percent.)
Employers have mostly eliminated pensions, and Boomers have an average of only $152,000 in retirement savings — far too little for a 20-year retirement; 45 percent of Boomers currently have no retirement savings. A Gallup poll found that 74 percent of Americans plan to work past 65, with some Boomers becoming "workampers" who combine work and retirement by buying an RV and touring a seasonal rotation of places to work. You might see them logging hours as a NASCAR usher in Florida, a security guard at a Texas oil field, or taking tickets for whale-watching tours in Maine.
Will this affect the economy?
As the percentage of Americans with full-time jobs drops, so, too, will GDP. Researchers from Harvard's Medical School and the RAND Corp. recently compared the growth rates of states that are aging at different paces. Their findings were startling.
For every 10 percent jump in the portion of a population over 60, economic growth fell 5.5 percent. Nationally, the group estimated, the aging of America's workforce has already lopped 1.2 percent off GDP this decade; this may explain why the average rate of growth has been a meager 2.3 percent since 2009. Another vexing question is how well America's consumer-driven economy will hold up when so many of us are living frugally on fixed incomes.
How about health care?
American spending on health care is expected to rise from about $4 trillion a year to $6 trillion, or 19.4 percent of GDP, by 2027. By 2025, U.S. health-care providers believe they will face a collective shortage of about 500,000 home health aides, 100,000 nursing assistants, and 29,000 nurse practitioners. Some are also bracing for a shortage of up to 122,000 doctors by 2032. This problem was complicated by Congress capping Medicare reimbursement to teaching hospitals for each resident in 1997, when there was talk of a doctor glut.
What other problems are ahead?
Cities will need to adjust their infrastructure for older people: Crosswalk timers will have to be reset to give them more time to get across the street, and far more curb cutouts for walkers and wheelchairs will need to be installed. The number of homebound, isolated seniors will dramatically rise, contributing to an existing loneliness epidemic.
The isolation, ironically, will be worse in the sidewalk-less, car-oriented suburbs America created to make Baby Boomer childhoods so utopian. What happens to tens of millions of suburban residents when they're 85 and unable to drive or walk to stores, community centers, or doctors? "In the '60s, a majority of people weren't living past 70, or 75," says Hilde Waerstad, research associate with the MIT Age Lab. "We're entering into this new era that we just have not seen before."
Well, I better stop writing on this and send it.
JOHN
Here are some great hints, and some veryinteresting things to know:
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