You Can’t Make This S**t Up

If you ever thought maybe Donald Trump was actually as “brilliant” as he, and he alone, claims, then perhaps you are either a suck up sycophant toady (ala Pam Bondi) or more likely, you are as blind to his mental decline as he, himself seems to be.

In a week where the U.S. government at home remained shuttered, and some Americans were denied essential food assistance, the Commander-in-Chief embarked on a diplomatic tour of Asia that felt less like statesmanship and more like a traveling vaudeville act. Japan, ever the gracious host, received President Trump with military honors, a red carpet, and—unfortunately—an electromagnetic elevator.

We see the odd anecdotal comment about private moments of less than lucid behavior, but this visit to Japan was a world stage shit show of accelerating mental decline. We’ll get to that momentarily but first, let’s reflect on Trump’s description of a recent MRI as “routine.”   According to actual doctors who are knowledgeable in the field, there is nothing “routine” about an MRI. MRIs are diagnostic tools, not “routine” screening tests. They’re used to investigate symptoms like unexplained headaches, seizures, or signs of neurological decline—not as part of a general wellness check. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and CNN medical analyst, emphasized that an MRI is “not part of a routine screening examination”—especially in the context of President Trump’s recent Walter Reed visit, where he also bragged about “acing” a routine cognitive test. But … back to Japan.

The recent Trump Japan visit included two truly surreal moments: a rambling, (and physics denying) “magnet” rant aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier and a video recorded and circulated clip of him, seemingly confused as to where he was, wandering away from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a formal ceremony. Both incidents have ramped up the ongoing speculation about his cognitive state and political theatrics. Here’s the breakdown of the two episodes.

The “Magnet” Rant on the USS George Washington:

During a speech to U.S. Navy personnel at Yokosuka Naval Base on October 28, Trump launched into a bizarre critique of electromagnetic systems on modern aircraft carriers.  He mocked the Navy’s shift to electromagnetic catapults and elevators, saying he preferred steam and hydraulics, as if he would know the difference. This was not the first time he has ranted about the Navy’s newer electromagnetic aircraft carrier catapult systems. In tone it was reminiscent of similar mindless natterings about wind turbines.

        The President, aboard the USS George Washington, took one look at the Navy’s modern catapult system and declared war—not on China, not on inflation, but on magnets. “You drop a little glass of water on magnets,” he warned, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Neither do physicists, apparently, because they’re still trying to decode the “science” behind that statement. He then vowed to replace electromagnetic launch systems with steam-powered ones, citing their “beautiful hiss” and “real American pressure.” Hydraulic elevators, he claimed, are “more trustworthy than anything run by magnets, which are basically woke metal.” (WTF?) This came after his theatrical entrance to the carrier’s flight deck, set to the tune of “YMCA”, and included complaints about the elevator system itself. (we know how he is about elevators and escalators!) The navy’s newer Ford-class carriers do use electromagnetic systems, but Trump’s technical claims were inaccurate. The comments drew laughter from the mandatorily assembled sailors but raised eyebrows among defense analysts.

The welcoming ceremony ramble:

      The shipboard rambling followed an earlier welcoming ceremony in the presence of the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister when Trump appeared confused during a welcoming ceremony in Tokyo.  As he walked through a room of dignitaries and a military band, he abruptly wandered away from Prime Minister Takaichi, leaving her stranded like a forgotten NPC in a diplomatic role-playing game. The footage, now viral, shows him meandering toward a military band as if drawn by an invisible steam whistle only he could hear. The moment was caught on video and widely shared, with captions like “Bro has no idea what is going on.”  Critics have cited this as further evidence of cognitive decline, especially following Trump’s own admission that he’d recently undergone that “routine” MRI at Walter Reed Medical Center.  He also described taking a “very hard aptitude test” involving animals like “tigers, an elephant, a giraffe,” which resembled cognitive screening for dementia.

So, we’ve got a president who rails against magnets, praises steam and strolls off like he’s chasing a butterfly—while the Japanese PM stands frozen.

The Trump Asia tour has become a surreal blend of Top Gun, Alice in Wonderland, and a Home Depot plumbing aisle. He’s not just rejecting modernity—he’s steamrolling it. Literally. And while critics cite cognitive decline, supporters see a man unshackled by electromagnetic tyranny. After all, who needs coherence when you have charisma, catapults, and the promise of a future Nobel nomination from a Prime Minister? In the end, Trump’s Japan visit wasn’t about policy. It was about propulsion. And if the future of diplomacy is steam-powered, we’d better start boiling.

        While most world leaders arrive in Asia armed with policy briefings and diplomatic nuance, President Trump came equipped with a cognitive aptitude test involving jungle animals. “They showed me a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe,” he said, “and I got them all right.” The test, reportedly administered at Walter Reed, was described by Trump as “very hard,” though it remains unclear whether it was designed for presidents or preschoolers.

This revelation came amid his week of steam-powered declarations and magnet paranoia. Trump, fresh off his rant against electromagnetic catapults, now seemed to be measuring global leadership in giraffe recognition and elevator reliability. Forget the SATs—can you identify a giraffe under pressure? Can you distinguish a tiger from a particularly aggressive housecat? These, apparently,  are the metrics of modern governance. Critics argue this signals cognitive decline. Supporters say it’s cognitive defiance. After all, who needs policy when you’ve got pachyderm proficiency? Apparently, in this new age of evaluating executive aptitude, the jungle is the cabinet, the elevator is the litmus test, and the giraffe is the gold standard.

God help us if he ever sees a platypus.

                                       

                    More “Florida Man” Antics

 For those of you who live elsewhere, let me indoctrinate you into the cult of our state goofy headline generator  – Florida Man. (and occasionally woman.)  “Florida Man”—equal parts meme, myth, and mugshot. He’s the unofficial state cryptid, and he lives in headlines such as (and these are real!):  

“Florida Man throws alligator through drive-thru window.”

“Florida Man arrested for driving stolen vehicle filled with stolen items to court for his stolen vehicle hearing.”

“Florida Man tries to light cigarette with blowtorch, burns down apartment.”

The phenomenon largely stems from Florida’s broad public records laws, which make arrest reports easily accessible to journalists. Combine that with a humid cocktail of heat, eccentricity, and questionable decision-making, and you get a steady stream of surreal news stories that start with “Florida Man…”

But it’s not just about the headlines—it’s a cultural reflection.  “Florida Man” is a chaotic, common sense impaired, icon of American folklore: unpredictable, unfiltered, and often unintentionally profound. He’s the guy who wrestles a bear in his backyard, then sues the HOA for not warning him about the bear.

Florida Man never sleeps, and neither do the headlines. Here’s some more gator-wrestling, meth-surfing, raccoon-smuggling chaos:

 “Florida Man claims to be time traveler from 2048, warns of alien invasion, demands to speak to the president.” (this guy also stole a truck and drove to Patrick Space Force base insisting that he had to warn the President of the alien invasion. Considering  the current POTUS, this bordered on redundant.)

“Florida Man arrested after spaghetti-fueled rampage at Olive Garden—shirtless, shoeless, and covered in marinara.”

“Florida Man caught stealing iguanas to “start a Jurassic Park-themed petting zoo.”

And just when you think it’s peaked, Florida Woman enters the chat:

“Florida Woman pulls python from her pants during traffic stop.”

“Florida Woman rides motorized shopping cart through Walmart while sipping wine from a Pringles can.”

 Here’s a fresh batch of headlines that feel like they were written by a fever dream in a bait shop:

“Florida Man arrested for trying to duel a neighbor with live chickens—claims it's “Old Seminole tradition.”

“Florida Man builds homemade air conditioner using igloo cooler, leaf blower, and frozen shrimp—declares it “better than NASA’s.”

“Florida Man spotted flying drone shaped like UFO over retirement community—says he’s “testing panic response for future alien overlords.”

“Florida Man steals flamingo from zoo, names it “Chad,” and takes it to court as emotional support animal.”

“Florida Man caught siphoning Capri Sun from school vending machine—tells police he’s “just hydrating the youth.”

And: Even more outré:

“Florida Man runs through gym naked, hides in tanning bed at closing time. Deputies dubbed him the “Birthday Suit Bandit”.

“Florida Man tries to steal $1,500 of merchandise from Lowe’s, flees on the back of a UPS truck.” A Citizen tip helped track him down.

“Florida Man shoots neighbor’s pregnant cow after it wandered onto his property.” He’d previously threatened to shoot any animal that crossed the line.

“Florida Man arrested after dog-fighting ring uncovered—alongside a neglected 9-foot alligator” The gator was kept in inhumane conditions.

“ Florida Man dubbed “Nail Bandit” charged after damaging fire rescue vehicles with sharp objects—for over a year and a half.”

“Florida Man leads deputies on chase, then offers them a can of vodka spritzer.” Bodycam footage confirmed the bizarre peace offering.

“Florida Man under fire for holding a dolphin out of water for a photo.”
 Wildlife officials were not amused.

“Florida Man wakes up in hospital missing an arm—last thing he remembers is going to the bathroom near a body of water.” Gator encounter confirmed.

These are just a sampling of the Florida State Doofus in action. For more, check out our Governor and Surgeon General.

 

Donnie and Pete’s Shameful Pep Talk: Mandatory Indoctrination or Morale Hazard? The Theater of Trump and Hegseth’s Military Sermons

It was a mandatory attendance spectacle of forced submission. It’s one thing to brief the brass on emerging threats. (the sort of briefings which Trump frequently either doesn’t attend or sleeps through).  It’s another to subject them to a flagrantly politicized tent revival disguised as “leadership development.”

When Generals and Admirals—men and women who’ve commanded fleets, divisions, and nuclear assets—are required to sit through ideological monologues from draft dodger Don, and  lush/misogynist Pete we’ve crossed the line from professional development, mutuality of mission purpose and National security into mere performative loyalty. This isn’t about national security. It’s about political narrative control. This is theater of the absurd, aimed at Maga dolts who pleasure themselves to old copies of “Sgt. Rock of Easy Company.” (for those of you much younger than I, this was a popular Post WWII comic book, which survived until 1988)

This was a classic example of the chain of command meets the ratings machine, most likely spawned by burgeoning negative public reaction to the illegal deployment to US military forces to US cities and Trump’s slavish worship of “ratings” (his) and concern over their recent retrograde direction.

Even more sickening, Pete Hegseth, whose military credentials include a stint in the National Guard and a long tenure on morning television, now lectures the Joint Chiefs on patriotism. Trump, whose grasp of military strategy is rivaled only by his grasp of spelling, delivers rambling stump speeches to an audience trained to salute, not swoon.

Yes, Pete Hegseth’s relationship with alcohol has been a source of controversy and scrutiny throughout his post-military career—especially during his time leading veterans’ advocacy groups and working in media. He has openly acknowledged that after returning from deployments, he often coped with trauma by drinking yet, despite these admissions, he insists he never had a “drinking problem.”  Still, multiple former Fox News employees claimed they saw him intoxicated at work.  He was reportedly forced out of two nonprofits—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—due to intoxicated behavior, mismanagement, and other misconduct. A whistleblower report described him as “totally sloshed” at public events, sometimes needing to be carried away.

While he characterizes it as a common veteran coping mechanism, his drinking history has raised serious concerns about judgment, professionalism, and leadership. Yet, here he is, carping about facial hair and chromosomes.

As an aside and based on personal experience, I served with female sailors and officers and never saw an issue of any sort.

There have been no documented or credible examples showing that the inclusion of women, even on submarines, has caused a decrease in readiness or performance. In fact, the available evidence and official commentary suggest the opposite: that integration has been successful and beneficial. Despite Hegseths whining and implication, here’s what the record shows. I’m using the submarine force because it is the ultimate daily close contact, professional stress situation other than combat, and I have 26 years of experience in the area:

Historical Context & Integration: Women began optional assignment to on U.S. Navy submarines in 2011, following a policy change by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2010. This integration was phased, starting with female officers on Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, then expanding to fast-attack submarines and enlisted ranks. No Navy reports or peer-reviewed studies have linked female presence on submarines to degraded operational performance. In fact, the Navy has emphasized that readiness and professionalism are gender independent. Female submariners are held to the same standards and have earned warfare qualifications (“dolphins”) just like their male counterparts.

Admiral John Richardson, a former Chief of Naval Operations, has stated that inclusive teams “achieve maximum possible performance” and “maintain high standards”. This is the sort of thing Hegseth, a flaming misogynist, even described as such by his own mother, detests. Anecdotal accounts from female submariners, including my recent conversations with a friend’s niece, herself a submarine qualified (USS Florida) intelligence expert, highlight mutual respect, strong crew cohesion, and the absence of gender-based limitations on performance. As might be expected, early discussions of such integration faced some initial resistance and heightened concern, but the result has not translated into measurable declines in readiness. If anything, such scrutiny underscores the need for fair evaluation rather than assumptions.

The U.S. military has long prided itself on remaining above the partisan fray. It’s why officers don’t campaign in uniform, why political rallies are off-limits on base, and why the oath is to the Constitution—not to any individual. But when attendance at these events becomes mandatory, the message is clear: neutrality is no longer enough. Visibility is loyalty. Applause is allegiance. This isn’t just a morale hazard. It’s a constitutional one.

It's not as if we haven’t seen this type of shitshow before.  In banana republics, strongmen parade before the military to affirm their dominance. In autocracies, generals are props in the theater of power. The U.S. has always stood apart—until now.

Even MacArthur, with all his ego, never demanded the Army sit through his political musings. Patton may have slapped a soldier, but he didn’t slap the Constitution. What we’re witnessing is not leadership—it’s political liturgy. If things remain as they are supposed to be, and the military is to remain the last bastion of nonpartisan service, its leaders must resist becoming simply stoic stagehands in a political pageant. That means pushing back on mandatory attendance. That means refusing to conflate patriotism with partisanship. That means remembering that the oath is not to a man, but to an idea, because when the generals are forced to clap, the republic begins to crack.

The irony in this situation is flagrant: a man who dodged the draft now commands the attention of those who’ve faced live fire. A true “fake media“ pundit, who once called diversity “a cancer” now lectures a force that thrives on cohesion and inclusion. As a veteran who knows better, it turns my stomach.

 

                       The Myth of the Overcrowded Sky

When Charlie Kirk declared “We’re full. No more visas for Indians,” it wasn’t a policy proposal—it was a bumper sticker masquerading as a worldview. In a nation built on immigration, innovation, and the occasional in-flight pretzel, Kirk’s remarks land with all the grace of a goose in a jet engine.

Let’s be clear: the U.S. aviation industry isn’t being overrun by foreign pilots. It’s being held aloft by them. Indian American professionals make up a vital part of our tech, healthcare, and yes, aviation sectors. They don’t displace American workers—they keep the planes flying, the code compiling, and the hospitals running while certain pundits are busy fearmongering from the comfort of a podcast studio.

Kirk’s comments weren’t just xenophobic—they’re economically illiterate. The H-1B visa program exists because there’s a shortage of qualified workers in key industries. If we’re “full,” it’s only of bad takes and empty slogans.

And let’s examine safety. The FAA doesn’t track pilot crashes by race or nationality because it’s irrelevant to performance. What do they track? Training hours, fatigue, mechanical issues, and weather. You know—actual safety factors? The idea that demographic diversity compromises safety isn’t just wrong, it’s dangerous. It undermines trust in a system that’s statistically safer than driving to the airport.

But, of course Kirk’s worldview didn’t stop at borders—it extended to bedrooms and boardrooms. At a women’s conference, he advised young women to avoid careers like orthopedic surgery, suggesting they should prioritize marriage and children instead. His claim that “all the good ones are gone” if women don’t settle down early wasn’t just regressive—it was a throwback to the kind of gender norms that make Donald Trump and Brigham Young seem progressive.

This wasn’t just rhetoric—it was ideology. It limns diversity as a threat, ambition as a flaw, and equality as a zero-sum game. It’s the kind of worldview that fears a cockpit staffed by a Black man or woman more than it fears turbulence.

So, what was really behind the “we’re full” and “stay home, ladies” messaging? In truth, a fear of change and a fear of complexity. A fear that the world is bigger than one ideology can contain.

If Kirk wanted to fly in a plane staffed only by people who looked and thought like him, he was welcome to charter one. The rest of us will be boarding commercial flights piloted by professionals—regardless of where they were born or what gender they are—because we care more about credentials than chromosomes.

 

                          

                                     A Medical Fool’s Carnival

 

A recent newspaper article contains the alarming story of Florida governor and Trump wannabee, Ron de Santis, declaring that it is his desire and intent (and he is encouraged in this by the  surgeon general of the state of Florida) to discontinue all mandates for vaccinations as a criterion for entering public schools in the state.

De Santis refers to, and summarily dismisses, strong cautionary disagreements from legitimate medical authorities on all levels, local, state, and federal, as “unsubstantiated.”  His toady State Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has also ignited a firestorm with recent comments and a policy push to eliminate all vaccine mandates statewide, including those for beginning schoolchildren. At a press conference on September 3, 2025, Ladapo emphasized personal autonomy over public health mandates, stating: “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” (yep, keeping kids alive is slavery?)  He continued, “Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.” Contemplating the potential ramifications of this type of thinking make my head hurt. That said, and as stated above, our illustrious governor is on board.

Ladapo has a well-documented history of diametrical differences between himself and the rest of the responsible medical community. He came to prominence in Florida for his opposition to COVID-19 mitigation measures, and promotion and furtherance of COVID-19 misinformation, for which he has been rebuked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has a history of promoting unproven treatments, opposing vaccine and mask mandates, questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and contradicting professional medical organizations. All this is with absolutely zero scientific justification. He joined De Santos in supporting monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID 19 up to the point where the drug’s manufacturer, a DeSantis contributor, finally admitted that their therapy didn’t work. Incidentally, Ladapo has also opposed gender affirming care and counseling for trans and non-binary minors.

        So, what then do the actual statistics say about mandatory vaccination? Let’s preface this with the statement that no valid study has ever shown an actual link between vaccines and Autism. Period. What follows will be an analysis of the effects of measles vaccine on what was once an annual epidemic in the US.

Historical Timeline of Measles in the U.S.

Pre-Vaccine Era

•       1765: First recorded measles case in the U.S.

•       Early 1900s: Measles killed ~6,000 Americans annually

•       1950s–1960s: Annual cases averaged 500,000+, with 48,000 hospitalizations and 400–500 deaths

 Vaccine Breakthrough

•       1963: Measles vaccine licensed—rapid and dramatic drop in cases

•       1978: CDC recommends two doses of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) for full protection.

Elimination & Resurgence

•       2000: CDC declares measles eliminated in the U.S.—no continuous transmission for over a year Yes, it works!

•       2014: 667 cases reported, mostly linked to unvaccinated communities. This coincides with the birth of the anti-vax movement, which was a conglomerate of anti-government, anti-science, deep state conspiracy, etc. movements in states such as California, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, and a few others which allowed “personal exemptions” for mandatory vaccines. California reversed course in 2015 and saw a step change drop in childhood communicable diseases, and in COVID cases later, (explanation below).

•       2019: 1,282 cases—the highest since 1992—sparked by outbreaks in New York and Washington among primarily unvaccinated individuals.

•       2024: only 285 confirmed cases across 16 outbreaks

•       2025 (as of August): 1,408 confirmed cases, 35 outbreaks, and 3 deaths reported across 43 states

•       86% of cases are outbreak-associated

•       Vast majority are among unvaccinated individuals

The trend and number of cases track similarly for Mumps. For Rubella, the same is true, but even more critical in some ways, in that Rubella can also, if transmitted to a pregnant individual, cause serious and disabling birth defects in the newborn. Rubella was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2004, but cases still pop up due to international travel and vaccine gaps.

All this of course implies that measles can become an unwanted gift. Susie ‘s mom is an anti-vaxxer, Susie goes to school and contracts measles, comes home, hugs grandma who may never have had the vaccine or has far less resistance. Grandma gets very ill as a result. The same was true in the COVID epidemic. Children, who had been vaccinated may have had contact with the virus and were contagious but essentially asymptomatic because their recent MMR vaccines also supplied some resistance to COVID (verified in a Harvard study). Adults at home with less resistance and less recency of MMR vaccination, or even none, contracted COVID from their apparently healthy children.

The same government which can require you to have a driver’s license and insurance should certainly have the right to require parents to have their children vaccinated as a measure to insure their health by insuring they are protected against known and potentially fatal diseases which thrive in close circumstances such as a schoolroom.

Dr Ladapo immigrated with his family from Nigeria when he was five years old. At that time (1983) Nigeria had no vaccine mandates and consequently had periodic outbreaks of contagious diseases. Oddly enough in that same year, Nigeria initiated the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). It was a major operational research project, launched in August 1983, aiming to dramatically increase vaccine coverage. It wasn’t yet a legal mandate, but it was a government-led push with strong community involvement and outreach. The project ran until July 1984 and boosted coverage from 9% to 83% in targeted areas. Now Nigeria does have vaccine mandates, particularly for childhood immunizations. In December 2021, the Federal Government of Nigeria also implemented a compulsory vaccination policy for all public sector employees. Workers had to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or present a negative PCR test within 72 hours to access their offices., Nigeria requires routine vaccinations for children, and these mandates are enforced especially for school entry. I point his out only to show the retrograde thinking of Dr Ladapo compared to his African homeland.

Between Dr. Ladapo’s lamentable religious philosophical flummery and DeSantis’ politically driven grandstanding, Florida has the potential to regress to the 1950s as far as public health essentials are concerned. Remember Polio? If you’re my age you do since we were kept indoors when the too frequent local cases occurred. Likewise, community pools closed.

 Drs. Salk and Sabin wiped out Polio as a threat via vaccines. Vaccines save lives. imbeciles like Ladapo and DeSantis threaten them. Amen.

    No matter what it takes, vote in the midterms. Also take the time to encourage your Congressional Representatives to push for election day to become a national holiday.

 

                                                 Cola Wars

I saw a post today written by a friend who apparently hopes that Coca-Cola will go back to using cane sweetener vice corn sweetener in their flagship soft drink. According to today's paper, even though Donald Trump has stated categorically that Coke will go back to using cane sugar, Coca-Cola has said there are no plans to do that.

On the surface this seems like a trivial matter and one might wonder, “Well, if people really like cane sugar better, then why doesn't coke simply go back to cane sweetener?” There's a lot more to this story than simply a choice of one over the other. The cost of sugar in the United States started to rise in the late 1970s and into the 1980s as a result of government-imposed tariffs, prompting soft drink manufacturers to switch to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as a cheaper alternative to sugar. By the mid-1980s, all of the major soft drink brands had switched to HFCS for their North American products, with the original formula of Coca-Cola being one of the last holdouts. In most countries, sugar is still used rather than HFCS.

First of all, Coca-Cola played one of the best bait and switch games ever foisted on American consumers when, in 1985, the company unveiled “New Coke.” New Coke was sweeter and had a somewhat different flavor than what Coca-Cola fans were used to. While the new Coke did not grab the old Coke’s market share and in fact was not particularly loved, we would later see lots of possible reasons why that happened.

One that was frequently cited was simply nostalgic brand loyalty to the old product. Another was that the new flavor simply wasn't as good or the same as the old Coke. What snuck by many people was that New Coke was sweetened with corn sweetener vice cane sugar. Just 79 days after the introduction of New Coke, when it had become obvious to Coca-Cola inc. that the new product was not loved like the old product, they came out with “Coca-Cola Classic”, which they were happy to have all consumers believe was simply the old Coke reborn. But, in reality the “new” old Coke had one significant difference. It retained the corn sweetener of the “New Coke.”

The vast majority of Coca-Cola fans happily greeted the return of Coca-Cola classic without understanding that what the Coca-Cola corporation had done was to switch sweeteners for economic considerations and, rather than simply change the classic coke recipe to substitute corn sweetener for cane sugar, actually first issued the New Coke so that the break in continuity when the Coca-Cola classic was restored would be less noticeable. By and large it worked.

What were the economic considerations? Simple really. Consider the current SecState’s statement, made while he was a Florida Senator, that “Sugar is a national security issue!” Yeah, he said that. He and his predecessors were cheerleaders for price supports on US cane sugar production, especially since the area of Florida below Lake Okeechobee has become US Cane Sugar central, beginning when the Fanjul family of Cuban sugar barons fled Castro’s Cuba and bought up thousands of acres of that land and began cane production on a grand scale. Marco Rubio and other Florida state level politicos have received and continue to receive massive campaign financial support in exchange for pushing for ludicrous federal price supports on US produced cane sugar. Considering the vast range of products retailed in the US which depend on cane sugar, we as a nation are paying a lot into the pockets of a relatively small market segment

The result? US consumers, commercia and private, pay more than twice the average world market price for cane sugar. Coke simply made an economic decision which has saved them multi millions, approaching billions, over the years since the shift to corn sweetener. Even without US price supports, cane sugar is more costly than corn sweetener. As one example, Mexican Coke is still made with cane sweetener. It is about 32 % more expensive.

Coke did what they did largely in the name of retaining brand loyalty while making an economic decision forced upon them by a government policy which favored the few at the expense of many, one of which is the nation’s largest soft drink purveyor.

Finally, one wonders why the hell an American President who drinks Diet Coke, sweetened with aspartame, gives a shit about which real organic vegetable sweetener is used in a beverage he doesn’t drink.

 

       Lies of the Right the President and Others Told Me

We all know, or certainly should know, that Donald Trump has a truth problem. Rather than dissect the spate of recent miserable policy outrages, I’ve taken the easy way out and am simply addressing some of the flood of lies coming from GOP talking heads, primarily but not exclusively the Grand Cheeto himself.   

 The lie: Trump: "All armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever” because of Trump policies, and “it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite.”

Fact:  Armed services recruitment rose from 200,000 in fiscal year 2023 to 225,000 in fiscal year 2024, a 12.5% increase, under the Biden administration.

 The Lie: Rick Scott, March 9:  "Well, first off, Donald Trump walked in with a crappy economy. The number of full-time jobs has been dropping almost the entire Biden administration."

The Truth: Under the Biden administration full-time jobs increased through that tenure. Part-time jobs also increased, driven by people who wanted to work part-time. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the number of jobs rose from 125.2 million in January 2021, to 133.5 million in December 2024 an increase of 8.3 million jobs, or about 6.6%, over four years.

The Lie: Donald Trump stated on January 20, 2025, that: “The United States is the only country with unrestricted birthright citizenship.”

The Truth: There are about three dozen countries that have unrestricted birthright citizenship, also known as "jus soli," or "right of the soil." In this group, The U.S. is joined by neighbors Canada and Mexico, along with nearly every country in Central and South America.

The Lie: Trump: “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it’s happening. And it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”

The Truth: Most economists say Trump’s tariffs would hurt the country, as they are, in essence, tax increases that could raise the costs of goods in ways that could also harm economic growth. We are only beginning to see the effects of these ill-chosen tariff actions and it will likely only get worse. When the Yale University Budget Lab looked at the tariffs that Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China, it found that inflation would increase a full percentage point, growth would fall by half a percentage point and the average household would lose about $1,600 in disposable income.

The Lie: Trump said: “We ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction.”

The Truth: The was no “mandate,” simply a stated goal. No legislation. Period.

The Lie: In his State of the Union message Trump said: “We’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made, never seen. (sic)”

 The Truth: No US automaker has announced a new plant since Trump took office and began instituting new tariffs. What is far more likely to spur US auto sales is the fact that Trump’s move to impose a 25% tariff on all imports coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico could add thousands of dollars to the cost of each new imported vehicle. (That said, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota. Subaru and Nissan already manufacture in the USA.

The Lie: Same SOU address: Trump said: “As an example, not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, 1 in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 36. There’s something wrong. One in 36, think of that, so we’re going to find out what it is.” (Of course, his moronic HHS appointee thinks he already knows)

The Truth:  the science is clear that vaccines don’t cause autism. Period. Actual research, on the other hand suggests that much of the increase is due to increasing awareness and screening for the condition. Also There have been changing definitions widening the scope of autism to include milder conditions now “on the spectrum” that weren’t recognized in previous years, coupled with advances in diagnostic technology.

The Lie: Trump press secretary, Karoline Leavitt to an Associated Press questioner: “He's (Trump) actually not implementing tax hikes. Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people (????), and the president is a staunch advocate for tax cuts.' The AP questioner fought back against Leavitt's claim by asking if she has ever paid a tariff, saying that 'They don't get charged on foreign companies they get charged on importers.' Leavitt responded: 'I think it's insulting that you're trying to test my knowledge of economics, and the decision that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to The Associated Press.'

 

And that’s about all I can stomach for today!     

 

                            

       More Trumpian Blithering B.S.        

 

An actual Donald Trump quote Friday, April 17^th: President Trump weighed in on the cost of eggs around the country, claiming Friday at the White House that the prices are “getting too low.” Trump then praised Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for doing a “great” job and then asserted that egg prices are “down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that.”  And: “You can have all the eggs. You watch, we have too many eggs. In fact, if anything, the prices are getting too low. So I just want to let you know that the prices are down,”

Fact: The highest recorded price for a dozen large Grade A eggs in the US was $8.15, according to the USDA, which was reached on March 4, 2025. This price was significantly higher than the average price of $4.95 per dozen in January 2025. Make no mistake about this; avian flu is the culprit, resulting in the following statistic: In December 2024 and January 2025, over 41.4 million domesticated birds were culled due to the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak. This brings the total number of birds affected to over 166 million, as of February 2025. The record number of chicken deaths, including those from culling, led to a surge in egg prices. Period. Trump claiming that his airhead SecAg had anything to do with egg prices is typical Trumpian rambling bloviation. If he’s speaking, he’s lying.

In truth, if egg prices were really down 87%, a dozen grade A large would cost $1.05 per dozen at retail. In truth, egg prices in the first three Trump months, are 64% higher than when he took office. Is that his fault? Of course not. Eggs are a market commodity and supply and demand drive prices. Fewer chickens means  fewer eggs, fewer eggs means higher prices. Period.

 Adam Smith understood that in 1776, when he published “On The Wealth of Nations.”  Donald Trump is an inveterate liar and an economic dunce.    

 

                          

             Financial Shenanigans in the Age of Trump

        In the “They snuck it in while we weren’t watching” category, the big winner is….US Commercial banks. The one paragraph item in question was relegated to the last page of the world and national news section of the local rag, right beside the notice that Chuck E, Cheese has declared bankruptcy. Of course, Mr. Cheese has been bankrupt in numerous other ways, primarily having to do with good taste, for decades.

        The issue at hand was what has been called the “Volker rule.”  For those not intimately familiar with commercial banking regulations (which once included the kid) the news rang no bells …that is until I reflected upon recent history, like, say, the great recession of 2009-13 and the words “commercial banks” rang a bell. First, the sobriquet “Volker rule,” named for former “Fed Head” Paul Volker refers to section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which sets forth rules for implementing section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956..

        The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank) is a United States federal law and an Obama initiative that was enacted on July 21, 2010, primarily as an attempt to stave off, by legislative fiat, further financial sector bleeding from risky use of clients’ money by large commercial banks. The law’s intent was to overhaul and increase financial regulation in the aftermath of the Great Recession. You remember, TARP, bailouts, mortgage foreclosures, unemployment, all that “stuff?”  It made changes affecting all federal financial regulatory agencies and darned near every part of the nation's financial services industry. Much of the act was consumer protection oriented.

        This act was a direct result of proposals by President Obama aimed at helping to prevent another epic economic tanking based on malfeasance at high levels of the US banking industry. Responding to widespread calls for changes to the financial regulatory system, in June 2009 Obama introduced a proposal for a "sweeping overhaul of the United States financial regulatory system, a transformation on a scale not seen since the reforms that followed the Great Depression". That pretty much sums up Dodd-Frank. The bill, based on his proposal, was introduced in the US House by Congressman Barney Frank, and in the Senate by Senator Chris Dodd. As one might expect, Most Congressional support for Dodd-Frank came from members of the Democratic Party, but three Senate Republicans voted for the bill, allowing it to overcome the Senate filibuster.

        One provision, the afore-mentioned Volker rule, restricted banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments. The act also repealed the exemption from regulation for security-based swaps, requiring credit-default swaps and other transactions to be cleared through either exchanges or clearinghouses.

 Understand, these were provisions to protect investors, borrowers, and financial product purveyors and their clients  from the no holds barred banking practices which had crept back in to the  rodeo which was the commercial banking industry after Depression era regulations had been eased by Congress.  The first Trump administration eliminated most of the Volker Rule’s regulatory prohibitions and provisions. Of course, lax supervision and little restraint is fine with the big guys in banking but hazardous to most of the rest of us who have IRAs and other retirement vehicles and accounts.

        For the uninformed, market manipulation, intentional or not resulted from the sheer size of funds involved in questionable securities, chief among them being high risk mortgages, bundled as viable and sound instruments. Proffered by agents for the big commercial banking houses which bundled and sold these dogs, there were easy customers aplenty, such as union pension funds, state employee pension funds, or simply large fund managers, seeking safe (hopefully) and profitable (primarily) places to put their money.

         Added to the mix were credit default swaps. This is bordering on a Grad school economics course, so I’ll just try to describe credit default swaps (CDS) as “I’m buying insurance to pay me if your investment tanks.” Think of it like this: Tom buys a racehorse with money borrowed from Bob. He plans to pay for the horse with its winnings. I don’t know either Tom or Bob, who lent him the money. Bob, the original lender might buy insurance (a CDS) that pays off the loan if Tom defaults. Bob can then, since he feels sure the horse is a winner, sell me that CDS. If the horse wins the triple crown and Tom pays off the loan as promised, the lender, and I, whoever bought the swap, is out the premium we paid the underwriter as well as I’m out the money I paid the Bob, the original lender, to buy the swap.

        However, should the horse break a leg and never run, the owner of the credit default swap (me) will (usually) collect the full value of the loan. Bob, however, gets the asset (the horse), now worth only its glue value. This little gem of an idea is one of many concepts to use money to make money which have no real product or service whatsoever in the mix (derivatives). What it did do, was to entice such insurance giants as AIG to insure these bets against the system with large premiums involved, and investors to buy them.

        When the bundled mortgage housing bubble imploded, and the “tranches” of groups of unsound mortgages were just paper, and worth nowhere close to the literally trillions of dollars pinned on the illusion of their value, everyone lost. Insurers lost, because the amount of massive defaulted credit they had insured via CDS would have bankrupted several of them, so, the buyers of the CDS also lost because the Insurer couldn’t pay (and they had paid the CDS sellers for the swaps) and the sellers of CDS were left with almost worthless bundles of impending foreclosures.  By the end of 2007, the outstanding CDS amount was $62.2 trillion. For a bit of perspective, that figure was over ten times the national debt!

        Commercial banks, like Bear, Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were in trouble. Lehman Bros, with $600 billion in bonds outstanding went bankrupt. AIG, having insured individuals world-wide against such defaults via by CDS was saddled with far more claims than the dollars to pay them. As we know, the recovery was long and painful, and many have pointed fingers, each at another, but one salient fact remains uncontested:  CDSs are not traded on an exchange and there is no required reporting of these transactions to a government agency. This has been called a “shadow banking system” by economists. (Think “dark web,” if that helps) This situation is a direct result of unregulated market capitalism. The 2010 financial crisis demonstrated the lack of transparency in this huge “shadow market” which became a concern to regulators as it could pose a systemic risk to the US economy if allowed to function unchecked. This and other issues were prime concerns of the framers of Dodd-Frank.

        Oddly enough, as a candidate, Donald Trump was the most self proclaimed anti–Wall Street presidential candidate since FDR in the 1930s. He attacked Wall Street relentlessly, directly, and explicitly throughout the 2016 campaign and attacked his opponent, Hillary Clinton, nonstop as being “In the pocket of Wall Street.” He even put the then-CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, in his last campaign ad as “one of the biggest threats to the people of the United States!” So, the Donald must have been a fan of Dodd-Frank, huh? Not so much. C’mon, we all know he’s a lying sack of shit, why should this be different?

        Predictably, critics of financial reform have claimed that the law and rules would kill banks' revenue and profits, which would prevent them from lending and would in turn kill economic growth and jobs. They did the same thing when FDR signed the Glass-Steagall banking act 1933. Glass-Steagall was different in that its principal regulatory function was to separate investment banking from retail banking. Repealed in 1999 by another banking act, the Gramm‐​Leach‐​Bliley Act, much of Glass -Steagall survives (separation of commercial and investment banking, FDIC, etc.). Neither would have stopped greedy lenders like Wells - Fargo, Washington Mutual or Indy Mac from making bad adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans to persons willing to borrow today without regard to the inevitable adjustable rate increase next year. Republicans tend to push the blame onto Federal initiatives urging the cessation of red-lining and other discriminatory practices. Likewise, private mortgage brokers in (too) many cases simply threw rational thought and responsibility to the winds, realizing that, the more mortgages sold, the more commission and that the vast bulk of them would be resold to banks before the ARM kicked in triggering, in a lot of such instances, default.

        Understand, once a mortgage broker okays and finalizes a mortgage, they are on the hook for that loan, but in today’s home loan world, most of these loans are then quickly sold to a bank or other professional money lender who is now the recipient of the buyer’s payments or the loser if the mortgage defaults. The mortgage broker then has no further fiduciary responsibility (or risk!)  

So, did Dodd-Frank and the Volker rule damage or stifle the vitality of the commercial banking industry as some have predicted? Hardly. In fact, in virtually every quarter since 2009, including throughout 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, the biggest banks recorded or eclipsed record revenues, profits, and bonuses while at the same time increasing lending.

Even so, at least 115 Dodd-Frank rules remained to be completed when the Obama administration ended, including executive compensation rules, securities-based swap rules, credit rating agency reform, and commodity speculation rules.

        Despite his constant excoriation of Wall as a candidate, after taking office, the Trump administration promptly set about dismantling the core pillars of financial reform by a number of regulatory reductions or eliminations, some of them were: 

Lowering capital requirements (easier, riskier commercial loans, important to Trump, himself heavily leveraged)  

Enabling more unregulated derivatives dealing (you know, like the CDS that triggered the bubble damage)

Rolling back consumer and investor protections by reducing prudential regulation of systemically significant banks (this is critical because it takes Federal eyes off those banks not considered critical, which now is almost every major “non-bank” as these commercial entities are sometimes called.

        Both GE capital and AIG are examples of “too big to fails” which are now off the list. One, AIG, not only failed spectacularly and engaged in egregiously irresponsible conduct, but also required an unlimited bailout, which ultimately amounted to $182 billion. The other was General Electric (GE), which, although with fewer headlines and less egregiousness, would have gone bankrupt without being bailed out as well. removing all of the “non-banks” from scrutiny is insane and even bankers outside that unique arena have said so.

         Neutering the regulation of systemically significant nonbanks and the shadow banking system, stopping enforcing the laws, is actually almost siding with the predators. Goodbye Volker rule.

        From 1929 through 2010 the US experienced a number of recessions. Some have been cyclic adjustments with no singular or specific cause; several were adjustments from wartime to peacetime employment. Three however, and two of these are 21^st century phenomena, were the result of a specific sector of the nation indulging in irresponsible market operations based on that most base of motives - greed, leading to runaway speculation. All three, the great Depression, the Dot-com crash and the great recession are the result of individuals who rarely if ever get their hands dirty, playing fast and loose with other people’s money or betting other’s money on “what ifs.”

        Trump favors loosening responsible observation and regulation of these entities. His sycophants echo that claim. History says he and they are wrong. History is powerful proof that regulation and financial stability don’t stifle growth and prosperity. That is why Dodd-Frank re-regulated the financial industry and why the first Trump administration's deregulation is so reckless and dangerous. The assault on the Volker rule was simply the latest insult.

As discussed, Trump did succeed in weakening Dodd-Frank, especially the regulation and oversight of commercial banks. As a result, in March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank was allowed to become sufficiently mired in poor decisions regarding the spending of investors’ funds that they ended up with low interest investments that left them unable to meet depositor’s demands. This deregulation, specifically due to Dodd-Frank’s emasculation, especially in the area of the Volker rule, exempted banks with assets below $250 billion such as SVB, from “stress tests and tougher capital and liquidity requirements, and in 2019 the regulatory burden was further reduced for all but the largest banks. These decreases in accountability and oversight allowed SVB to take the risks it did with other peoples’ money.

Since Biden was now in office, the predictable and ludicrous Republican response was to blame “Woke banking practices” whatever that might even mean, for the results of Donald Trump’s assault on reasonable and necessary government regulation. While commercial banks and huge debtors such as the Trump Organization whine about it (regulation), the real victims are powerless in many cases.

The housing bubble collapse between 2007 and 2012 resulted in more than twelve million foreclosures in the United States. The crisis was caused by a number of factors, but the main contributor was the substantial number of predatory and unaffordable subprime mortgage loans given out in the early 2000s. This was escalated by lax banking rules allowing high risk mortgages to be graded like currency. RIP Dodd Frank, we hardly knew ye.

One wonders what further financial shenanigans Trump might espouse and abet after he’s done gutting regulations in other areas. One can only hope desperately for a blue tide in the 2026 House and Senate elections.

        

                       

The Speech No One Wants to Give

 

“To attain any success, it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything — even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon “moderation” in government.

        Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things…. a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible, and they are stupid.”

        Sound a bit like AOC speaking?  Perhaps a Socialist candidate? Hardly. This is an excerpt from a letter written by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, then POTUS, to his brother Edgar. The gap is where he named several names of those he considered “stupid.” The second paragraph reveals how far the modern Republican party has strayed from Ike’s precepts, having become markedly anti-union, and progressive labor legislation, and threatening Social Security. Of course, since many modern Republicans reap the windfall from farm subsidies, they have actually increased (read RED states).

        However, the title of this essay reflects my belief that we should consider and honor the scientific process, by which I mean mathematics, statistics, and demographics. One of the aspects of science which some political conservatives and an even greater percentage of conservative religionists deny, is that as conditions change (read climate change, here, as one example) so should our expectations and actions.

        One such Conservative objection to some change is the fear that doing the right thing isn’t the “right thing’ if it affects business’s bottom line or electability of partisan hacks. Another thread is voiced by those who are stuck with a creation “story” which is increasingly revealed as creation “myth” by science. The tragedy here is that as we are seeing as I write, the right salesman with the proper snake oil can, seemingly against all odds, unite these seemingly disparate forces.  

        First off we have the claims that Congress is “pilfering the Social Security Trust Fund.  Social Security sometimes collects more money than what is paid out. Between 1937-2009 the Social Security Administration (SSA) received $13.8 trillion in income, but expended $11.3 trillion in benefits, according to the agency. However, for the past 13 years, the retirement program hasn’t taken in enough FICA taxes to pay current year benefits and that's where the Trust Fund, comes into play.

Every year, excess money, if any, is held in the "Social Security Trust Fund" which get invested into Treasury bonds and securities that make a lot of interest. In the Fiscal Year 2018 those investments racked up $3 billion alone, adding to a total of $2.895 trillion then `````currently in the fund. So any money taken in from Social Security isn't being divvied up among Congress, that money is being invested in the most secure way--with U.S. bonds.

"No, [Congress] did not take any funds from SS," Dean Baker, senior economist at Center for Economic and Policy Research, said. "SS funds are credited to its trust fund. Unless Congress changes the law (and it hasn't), any money dedicated to the trust fund is in the trust fund.”

        Having said that, it must be noted that one consistent bugaboo, addressed with varying amounts of arm waving and hot air, to some degree by both parties, has been the continually burgeoning federal budget cost share of social welfare programs, especially Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs. Much has been written, some of it mine, regarding health care costs and the significant responsibility for their escalation borne (or which should be borne) by outlandish and extortionary drug pricing by Major Pharma corporations. This isn’t a “fix”, but it would be a hell of a start if Congress had the guts to put lobbyist influence aside and repeal Medicare part D’s prohibition on negotiating drug prices like every private health insurer can and does. That simple action would reduce government drug spending by about $133 billion annually! For comparison, that savings would defray about 30% of the 2020 interest on the national debt. (prior to whatever effects we saw from Covid-19)

        On the other hand, and more directly related to my topic is a set of demographics which requires nothing more than literacy and common sense to interpret. The implications are plain and the “fix” apparent, if unpopular.

Obviously, we live longer, and not just a little longer, but almost 15 years longer. Actually, in 1935 when Social Security was incepted, the average life span was 60.7 years of age. This meant that, as the creators of the concept enacted it, the odds were that the average worker wouldn’t live to collect a dime!

        Looking at the table yields some fairly simple conclusions, but the “big” one is harder to see.  First: in 1940, Ida May Fuller, became Social Security's first beneficiary. She was exceptional because she had lived longer than the average of her peers.  By 1945, at full wartime productivity, for each SS beneficiary, there were 41.9 workers paying into the system (actually building for a while, an excess, the illusory “trust fund”.) Today’s workers, on the other hand, are paying today’s recipients. Yes, they are.

Since this point, the Social Security Board of Trustees has released an annual report detailing the financial health of the program. This includes taking a closer look at the income and outlays for Social Security each year, as well as forecasting the future solvency of America's leading retirement program. In each of the last 40 reports, the Trustees have warned of a long-term funding obligation shortfall. In other words, the Trustees forecast cumulative income received in the 75 years following the release of a report and determined that, inclusive of cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), outlays would handily outpace income. In the 2024 Trustees Report, Social Security's long-term cash shortfall was estimated at $23.2 trillion through 2098. This was up $800 billion from the projected 75-year funding obligation shortfall listed in the 2023 Trustees Report.

         By 1975, because of the increase in recipients and a 7-year increase in longevity, the “workers to recipients” ratio was down to less than 1/3 of the 1945 figure. Meanwhile, the birth rate in the USA had decreased by about a third. The number of retirees reaching eligibility age was still increasing, primarily due to longer life expectancy. As seen in the table, the Social Security share of the federal budget was blossoming as well. At this point, another factor came into play, that being the numbers of persons receiving disability or survivor’s benefits from the same pot of cash. Surviving spouse with minor children coverage was part of the 1935 law, but disability wasn’t covered until 1956. This may seem cynical, but it seems to me that the availability of SS disability has in many cases created a cottage industry for lawyers willing to “arrange” it for a slight fee.

        The monster lurking under the bed, however, was the post war “Baby Boom”. From 1945 to 1961, the birth rate in the USA was higher than ever before or since, creating a “bubble” in the progression of population growth. The effects of this bubble have been felt by every industry in America from home building to children’s clothing to insurance to health care, and the list is practically endless. Take a child born to Mr. and Mrs. Howard Cunningham in 1948, after Howard returned from his army duties and they settled down. Their son, call him Richie, born in 1948, hit Social Security full retirement age of 67 in 2015, and he’ll draw Social security, assuming he’s got good genes, for at least another 11 or 12 years. 

        Because the baby boom continued into the early 1960s, and because the birth rate dropped to about half of that of the boom’s peak years, there are now even fewer workers contributing to the payments made to the steadily increasing numbers of boomer retirees planning, like me, to live a lot longer than average.  I’m barely a “pre-boomer, born in 1942. The boomer class of 1955 -1960, when the birth rate per 100 thousand was still over 20, is yet to come. The ‘55s hit in 2022, more to follow.

        So, what? The first observation, admittedly in hindsight, is that this issue was completely predictable and avoidable. It was obvious by the numbers between 1945 and 1955. Disability compounded the issue, accounting. now, for about 20% of the Social Security payout. What to do?  Let’s first reflect on what could have been done. This demographic trend was obvious at least 70 years ago (1950) and at that time, considering the increased lifespan, a forward-thinking Congress (yeah, I’m aware that’s an oxymoron) might have passed legislation raising the full retirement eligibility age by a year each of the following three or four decades. At most, that would now have full retirement at age 69. An accompanying increase for the early retirement age would have also been appropriate. Passing this legislation in 1950 to go into effect in 1960 would have “grandfathered” every worker within ten years of retirement. Had this been done, recognizing that the changes occurring were predictable and irreversible, Social Security would be well and good. As it stands, more than a third of retirees take early Social Security benefits, in many cases because they have prepared for retirement in other ways. In other words, foresight could have “fixed” the problem by 1990. Unfortunately, only a smattering of that philosophy was applied, and that was too late.

         What might be done now? This is the part that no politician wishes to address, because any real fix will be unpopular with some. First, recognize that any change that doesn’t grandfather persons with current retirement plans is blatantly unfair, so: pick a time certain, say, at least 5 years from the enacting of legislation, which raises the full eligibility age to 68. Also, raise the early retirement age to 63 in, perhaps, just three or 4 years. Additionally, decrease the initial amount of early retirement to encourage individuals to wait. In another five years plan for another bump to age 69 for full retirement, while leaving early retirement at 63. Increase the reward for waiting. In a “worst-case” scenario, also require employers to include disability insurance equivalent to Social Security disability as a perk. Also enact realistic legislation defining “disability” in meaningful terms. I’m reminded of the Louisiana mother of four sons, all supposedly mentally unable to hold jobs, yet all of whom had cars, but when their disability status was questioned, her rationale was that “Every young man needs a car.” The literature is rife with tens of thousands of well documented cases of SS disability and Medicare/Medicaid fraud as well as simple benefit fraud, such as cashing checks of long dead parents.

        Explain, in simple English, that by probably 2035 the problem will begin to moderate on its own, as the “Bulge” of the baby boomers pass through the system and on to whatever cosmic Karma waits for them. The birthrate began to decrease after a plateau at 1955-57. The class of 1957 would be 81 by that time and total numbers of beneficiaries would be decreasing steadily.

         Do not, however, like former Senator Alan Simpson or ex-Congressman Paul Ryan (himself the beneficiary of Social Security survivor’s benefits), address this issue as if the people who depend on it are “greedy” and are the ones at fault. “Recipient shaming”, when the current issues are the fault of decades of Congressional heads in the sand (or up their keisters), is a sleazy cop-out by those who had the data to see this demographic shift coming sixty years ago yet took no action. 

Yeah, it would have been the speech no one, presidents included, wanted to give but had that happened, with appropriate “grandfathering,” this essay wouldn’t have been written.  Too often this one- dimensional approach, usually including the use of the word “entitlement” somewhere, seems to blame currently eligible recipients rather than address the issue of Congressional unwillingness to tackle unpopular issues squarely.      

 

 

                             He’s Dumb, But Not Alone

        The Orange Dunce of Mar a Lago once told his then media bitch, Sean Hannity, that “Wind energy won’t work because the wind only blows sometimes.” More recently he raved about the "fumes" associated with wind power.  As a science nerd, I could go into some detail about why this is bat shit crazy, but I’d rather have a frank discussion about why the “Green New Dealers” also need to do more homework. I’m reminded of the stoner, interviewed at Woodstock who opined that Woodstock was a “model for the world, man.” It was a great concert, but hardly a model for urban planning, living or (definitely not) sanitation.

        Idealism, untempered by a grasp on the possible, rather than the Utopian. is a lousy framework for getting meaningful things done. This is certainly true in the case of exclusively wind power as part of a nationwide electrical grid. In furtherance of the goal of “all wind all the time,” Green New Dealers almost always (I only add “almost” because someone, somewhere, may have stated factual data but we have yet to see it) grossly understate the true cost of wind in several ways.  Understand this before I begin: I loathe fossil fuel’s negative effects on the environment and public health. What I am referring to here is the amazingly lo-ball numbers we are being fed re: wind as opposed to other possibilities.

        To begin with, energy storage in a “situational” power source situation (Solar, Wind) is critical to maintaining unbroken power supplies to consumers. “Peak” energy consumption across the nation is after dark much of the year. Clearly, solar must overproduce during the day and store energy for the dark hours. This battery technology, while burgeoning is grossly expensive and in its infancy and will cost far more than the solar panels which produce the energy they would have to store. Solar has the advantage of no moving parts, ergo lesser maintenance, however, it also is easy to damage (hail, normal wear and tear) It also wears out and is carbon intensive in both manufacture and disposal.

        Wind, of which the dunce in chief demonstrably knew little, has more and more expensive concerns, generally glossed over by the naïfs who tout the GND as a panacea.

        The two major disadvantages of wind power include initial cost and technology immaturity. First: constructing turbines and wind facilities is extremely expensive for the amount of power generated by each unit- an average about 2.5 to 3 KW per, with 5 KW as a probable maximum. Secondarily, at the current state of technology, maintenance, such as changing oil in rotor bearings at the top of the tower weekly, is periodic, essential, frequent, and expensive. (Ask the Danes!) It is even costlier in offshore installations.  We, too frequently, see cost per kwh listed as production cost, not cost to consumer, which is extremely equivocal. As an example, most cost per kwh numbers we see are misleading because they frequently omit the initial cost of hardware. This “total” cost, which is passed along to consumers is known as levelized cost. 

    What GND’ers cite (in the vicinity of 3.1 cents per kwh) is like citing the cost of a car wash considering only the water, soap and minimum wage imbecile who reminds you to “put the window up!” without adding the cost of the machines, the building, the electricity, etc. This is about like bragging about how many miles per gallon your hybrid gets without considering the initial cost of the vehicle (still a good investment by the way!) Here is a sobering real-world number: Danes pay about 40 cents per kwh, which is 13 times as high as the GND’ers hype states!

       Moreover, it almost always fails to consider energy storage costs for the periods when demand exceeds supply. This seems minor, but in a nationwide grid it is critical. Just to power New York City alone (this is just households, not the far more energy hungry hotels and businesses) would require the installation and constant operation of about 5,700 wind turbines, not to mention energy storage capacity. The cost of the turbines alone, at an average $3.5 million apiece, would run to well over $20 billion.  At an average annual maintenance cost per turbine, add another $270 million annually!

        That cost, passed on to consumers, would be almost punitive. This does not include the far, far higher energy demands of industrial operations.

        In the real world, the cost to non-industrial consumers of electricity fluctuates over the entire nation, from a low of 8 cents per kwh in Idaho, to 18.1 cents per kwh in NY and CT, to a whopping 33.2 cents per kwh in Hawaii. Idaho is relatively cheap because most of the electricity produced and consumed there is generated by the cleanest source on the planet – hydro-electric plants. Idaho also has some geo-thermal (hot underground water) sources and uses the free heat to heat some buildings. According to the Federal Energy Information Administration, the "levelized cost" of new wind power (including capital and operating costs) is 8.2 cents per kwh, essentially in a dead heat with Nuclear. Advanced “clean-coal” (bullshit!) plants cost about 11 cents per kwh but advanced natural gas-burning plants come in at just 6.3 cents per kwh.  Without regard to the environment, this makes gas even cheaper than wind and solar. Of course, there’s that nasty little carbon footprint thingy which remains relatively high. Coal is filthy in all ways and constitutes a well-documented public health hazard.

        None of the above should be construed as indicating a dislike for wind power, but rather as a factual prequel to a discussion of an even better option. 

        What is being overlooked is that there is another “zero carbon footprint” technology, its reputation damaged by a movie and a “no harm/no foul” accident within weeks of each other in 1979. Three Mile Island and “The China Syndrome” scared the hell out of many Americans, the more ignorant, the more scared. The nuclear power industry in the US has still never really recovered, despite the fact that perhaps the most rigorous public health data collection effort ever, concluded in the US after 40 years, announced the total casualties either direct or indirect from the TMI incident as “zero.”  Nuclear power emits no exhausts, discharges no pollutants into streams, has a zero-fatality record over about 70 years of US operation, land based and seaborne, yet some shun it because we fail to understand it.

        Want to be “Green?”  China and India obviously do. They are pioneering liquid salt reactor technology which the US gave up in the late 1960s. Why did we do so? Even though the prototype had a record of over 6000 effective full power hours of incident free operation at the Oak Ridge, TN, facility, it was not capable of producing weapons grade Plutonium, ergo it was scrapped in favor of high-pressure fast breeders (like Chernobyl).

Liquid salt reactors can use Thorium, of which we have literally thousands of years’ worth, and are inherently stable and safe. They even produce fewer waste products to be handled than current pressurized water designs, of which, by the way, I have more than a passing operational knowledge of, at sea, submerged. Interestingly, molten salt fuel comes with an inherent safety feature. If the salt overheats, it naturally expands and makes the fission reaction less effective, which shuts down the reactor. Tech innovators such as Bezos with Amazon, Gates with Microsoft and Altman with OpenAI are united in betting on nuclear energy. And they're not alone. The nuclear sector is experiencing a renaissance, bolstered by climate goals and energy demands, A wind farm would need 235 square miles to produce the same amount of electricity as a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant. The nuclear power plant can operate at constant power day/ night, wind or calm, freezing or scorching requiring no massive (and, as yet, non-existent battery) banks. 

        We love to cite Denmark when we discuss Utopian social models which we have been conned into believing. One such is the fact that the Danes are wind powered for all electricity, much of it sea-borne (off shore). So, they must get really cheap electricity, right? Not so much. They pay more (40.5 cents per kwh) than even Hawaii!  apparently the “green” in Green New Deal doesn’t refer to the color of money! I failed to mention the estimated half-million birds of all sorts killed annually in the US with existing wind turbines. Finally, what would all these new turbines cost? Assuming all current non-wind energy production became “wind based” and at today’s prices, merely (roughly) about 15% of the current total national debt! This of course excludes land costs (astronomical) and, yet to be invented storage capabilities. National bankruptcy, anyone?

        Bottom line? Nuclear power is safe, reliable and can be sited anywhere, no matter how remote. Both China and India are already building next generation liquid salt reactors for electric power production. Although China leads the world in terms of total wind generation capacity, they also would seem to realize the advantages nuclear offers, since, this year (2025) they are building a pilot liquid salt electric power station in the Gobi desert which, while only about 9 feet by 7 feet in size, will produce enough power for about 45,000 homes. This is equivalent to 54 wind turbines operating at constant maximum output. Future liquid salt plants will produce far more, in the area of 1100 mw. This would be sufficient to power more than half a million homes. It would require more than 400 wind turbines operating at full capacity, 24 hours per day, to provide the same output.

      Do the homework, be informed, unlike the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.