"Vote Smart"

I suspect that when each of us votes, we assume that we are voting smart, but our vote is only as smart as the information we base it on is true. One of the basic requirements of political information is that it is unbiased. This rules out primary sources such as Fox News or MSNBC. Fun to watch, but each of these sources gives you a single view point and it is certainly biased. I have found a reliable, unbiased source of information and have been doing my research on political candidates there for many years. I also rely on it for data used in my blog. The source is votesmart.org. The site is free, but relies on its support through voluntary user donations. Information is organized into six categories.

Bio: This section is a biography of the candidate you have chosen to search. It is a very complete history of: education, family, work history, positions held, birth place, religion, political experience, favorite entertainment, favorite quote.

Votes: This is the candidate's voting history in reverse chronological order. This of course is valuable information on how well they will represent your positions. It is a laborious review, so regulate your time wisely on this section.

Positions: This section is an effort toward consolidating the positions of the candidate by offering them a series of questions to respond to. It has been my experience, in using the site, that most of the major candidates do not care to respond to this effort. I'm not sure that a candidate's positions are necessarily the major determinant of how they will vote. Their vote is heavily effected by their political party (the “rubber stamp” directive of both parties) and by their funding sources (follow the dollar). I see their positions as the weakest of the three determinants of their vote.

Ratings: Ratings are very indicative of who the candidate is. It is the opinions of various special interest groups of the candidate. They score them on a percentage scale, the higher the score, the better the group rates the candidate the better they like their voting record and position statements. This also relates to candidate funding.

Speeches: This area also contains letters and articles by the candidate. It gives you a much more nuanced position than a voting history on any given issue. However, as you have seen in watching the news, a representative may vote neither their opinion or their wisdom.

Funding: Funding should be first, but you choose the order of your search. Most candidates elected have the larger bank roll. So, they pay a lot of attention to the wishes of their major donors. The donors expect a return on their investment. This section features: The Campaign's Financial Summary, their Top Contributors, Top Industries and Top Sectors. If you think the money pulls the strings, pay attention to this area.

I can not emphasize enough how reliable and unbiased this information source is. To me, as an independent, it is essential. It is fast and easy to use, not at all complicated. The “I SPY”, first section of the site that I have just described is a pleasure to use. The creator of the organization and president is Richard Kimball, a man who stepped away from politics to bring truth to it. Such a rare and valuable thing. votesmart.org Try it, you will be glad you did. The smartest vote possible is based on truth and wisdom.

Cheers, Old Buz 8/22/2020

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com 

The Future of The Nation

 

“Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty. The flames of the new economic evolution run around us, and we turn to find that competition has killed competition, that corporations are grown greater than the State … and that the naked issue of our time is with property becoming master, instead of servant.” - Henry Demarest Lloyd, in his 1894 book, Wealth Against Commonwealth. I doubt that Henry knew, over a century ago, how prophetic his words would be in our time in America. But, he was able to read “the writing on the wall.”

I came across this quote in reading Robert B. Reich's book, The System, Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. I am nearly finished reading the book and it clearly illustrates how we got here, but not so clearly how we solve the problem. I'm not sure that it is a problem. It could just be the natural maturation of a Capitalist Democracy. The free market system results in winners and losers. Wealth flows to less and less winners, but the amount of wealth grows larger and larger. A simple example is Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon. He has basicly won the retail sales war, is probably the wealthiest man in America and yet a third of his employees in Arizona are said to be on food stamps. He reportedly payed 1.2% in corporate income taxes last year on over $13B in earnings. My experience with this phenomenon is that forty years ago, when I founded the Arizona Motorcycle Dealers Association, we had 28 member/dealers in the state. Today, there are two and probably soon ... one.

So, how would you stop or at least slow this lack of healthy competition and widening of the wealth gap? When I visited Japan in 1965 as a district manager for Suzuki Motor Corporation, I noticed that there were no large motorcycle stores or chain operations, just small family owned businesses. How could this be in the heart of the motorcycle industry? Well, Japan had a law that there was no such thing as a quantity discount. So the small store owner would pay the same price for his motorcycles and parts as a giant retailer would (if there were such a thing). Could we have a similar law in America? Hell no. Our legislation is not designed to benefit the population. It is written by lobbyists and they represent giant wealth, not you.

It is probably too late to turn this dynamic around. The horrendous cost of winning an election and the Supreme Court's decision of Citizens United has cemented the power of large corporate dollars and lobbyists. Both of our political parties and therefore our government is ruled by corporate shareholders and they are guided by CEOs. The CEOs are guided by greed, power and influence.

Cheers, Old Buz 8/7/2020

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Corona Foreclosure, Eviction, Repossession

This blog is addressed to those of you with wealth and property (lenders). The action described will protect your assets and future income stream, while treating your debtors well. Corona foreclosure, eviction and repossession are suicidal acts for mortgage holders, landlords and lenders. Like suicide, they are not a good solution to the problem. The best description of a suicide is that “it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” By taking any one of these actions the lender is risking getting rid of a good paying debtor, experiencing vacancy, the lowering of property value and property damage. Is there a less painful solution to the property owner, during this pandemic? Hell yes. Read on.

At this point in time there are 25-30 million wage earners on unemployment due to Covid19. These are a large chunk of the folks that you receive rent or mortgage payments from and soon they will be unable to make those payments. Automobile loans fit into the same scenario. This is through no fault of the borrower. If you take any of the above actions you will start a down spiral in the economy and make that number of families homeless and without transportation. There is a better way for you and for the temporarily unemployed to solve this problem.

The answer is an intelligently administered freeze of payments. No back payments due. No late fees. No accumulation of interest. This would be for the period of unemployment caused by the virus. If you are looking at a 30 year mortgage and the period of unemployment is one year, the loan would be paid off in 31 years. No ruining of credit. No homeless population increase. The lender (you) would need to have their mortgage payments paused as well.

The retired population, living on government income or a private retirement plan, or those not retired, but with a large investment income should not be involved in this plan, as at this point in time their income has not been effected. No one who cannot justify a need for this plan should benefit from it.

In 2008 the economy crashed due to unwise action by the banks and investment companies. The public bailed them out. It is time for you one per-centers to return the favor. Our government can not long afford to make mortgage, rent payments or car payments for the population. In good times government operates at a deficit. So where do the billions required come from? We borrow or print money. Neither will work well in this covid19 crisis. Borrowing with a crippled economy will be at a high interest rate. Printing money without production backing will result in mega-inflation. The answer is in a well executed, temporary pause of payments to property. The program must be executed by the Federal Government. Get your lobbyists working on it. Save your property values.

Cheers, Old Buz

8/5/2020