The Boulder Fires 12/31/2021

      

   As most of you know, I am a graduate of The University of Colorado Boulder, class of 1965.  This would make me an expert on the presently burning Boulder Fire.  With the 100 mph winds in the area and the persistent drought, the fire itself is hard to follow.  I have no vehicle capable of sustaining that speed.

   The real threat to the University is to the athletic stadiums and The Sink (drinking hole).  I worked at The Sink for my Jr. & Sr. years at Colorado and as you well know this establishment is the #2 beer outlet in the nation (primarily Coors, a local product).  Ron De Santis with his U of Miami has the #1 spot.  With athletics being placed before academics in our state institutions of higher learning, across the nation, you can be assured that the stadiums will be up and running long before classrooms will be restored.  And if you are worried about The Sink, rest assured, The University of Colorado, long claimed to be the #1 party school in America, will quickly be up and running.  If you don’t have 3.2% beer available at your state’s universities, you might look into it.  Alcohol consumption can rival the Lottery for state income.  Help drinking become the #2 sport at your university.  Do it for God and Country.

Keep Athletics & Entertainment Strong, Old Buz

“I don’t listen to the experts.  I listen to my gut.” – Donald Trump, 45^th President of The U.S.

P.S. Thoughts and prayers are a far better way to handle the drought than desalinization would be.  I.e. Go after the effects not the cause or cure.  “God Bless America”  On the pandemic: "Thank "Q" for sharing."

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

"Go Buffalo"

Who Are We?

 

   Our US Senate just passed an annual military spending bill for $768.2 billion, over ¾ of a trillion dollars, sent to it by the House of Representatives.  It is ready to be signed by our president and he most likely will sign it.  You see, it truly has bipartisan support.  85% of the Senate voted for this military budget.  It is over $24 billion more than the Pentagon requested.  The Senate can’t come together on voting rights, healthcare or education.  Each side of the aisle votes like a rubber stamp, against the other, but on annual military spending, it is all cum-by-yah in our government.  Why is that when we currently spend more than the next 10 nations combined on our military?  Democrats and Republican representatives sure love military spending.  We increased the amount after pulling out of a 20 year shooting war.  One of the reasons given for the Afghanistan pull out was “military spending.”  Is it possible that in the first five years of that war we had accomplished our reason for being there and for the next 15 years, the purpose was military spending?

   When President Eisenhower left office in 1961 he warned of “The Military/Industrial Complex” threatening the nation.  It no longer threatens.  It is our nation.  For those of you born after 1961, it seems normal and therefore perfectly OK.  How does the above vote jive with the concept of a “Christian Nation?”  Could it be that we are delusional in our national emphasis on maintaining a giant military?  In that respect, is our nation morally blind and perhaps not “One Nation Under God?”  On the other hand, the first ¾ of The Holy Bible, a popular mythological novel, presents a militaristic God, but the last ¼ talks about a “Prince of Peace.” 

   Perhaps on this eve of brotherly love we could rejoice and be thankful for our elected representatives coming together, in a non-partisan way to keep America free (but not necessarily with all of us voting).  There will always be time to build back better and we can worry about maintenance of infrastructure tomorrow.

Christmas Cheers, Old Buz   12/24/2021

Abortion & The Law

   There are mediating factors between abortion and the law.  The two primary ones are morality and science.  Semantics tend to get involved too.  Some might call the termination of a pregnancy a murder.  I wouldn’t strenuously object to the use of the term.  It is the willful termination of a human life.  I hate to admit it, but the Catholics got it right on this one.  “Life begins at the time of conception.”  The embryo is certainly alive and is it not the first stage of a human individual?   Put out enough religion based moral decrees and sooner or later you are bound to get one right.

   The embryo, fetus, unborn child, baby are all the same critter.  They are stages of development.  The same is true of the twenty year old water skier and the eighty year old in assisted living.  It is the same human in a different stage of life’s journey.  And how is it different to end this human life at 13 weeks than it is at 25weeks?  The mother and her doctor are deciding to end a human life in either case.  An embryo is not a chicken or a lizard.  The acorn is part of the life story of the mighty oak.  Same critter, at a different stage in its development.

   Fetal viability is an odd concept to be used in laws governing abortion rights.  For one thing, ending a life at 19 weeks isn’t a whole lot different than ending one at 20 weeks.  For another what does viability refer to?  A baby born in a well-equipped hospital can be born premature, in the last trimester and still have a good chance of survival.  Not so good for a baby born at home and delivered by a mid-wife.   I believe that this early birth technology will be developed to a point where an embryo can be on high-tech life support through gestation.  What will that do to the definition of “fetal viability”?

   When the pro-abortion women claim something like, “My body.  My choice.”  I believe they are somewhat incorrect.  They are housing and feeding another human being.  That is who they claim the decision of life or death over.  Perhaps they have that right.  Not because it is their body, but because it is their possession and they have the right to end its life.  A woman surely has a better right to kill her unborn than a man has to fly half way around the world to kill a stranger, afforded by his membership in the military.  I would guess that the best captain to guide a moral rudder would be the half-bred child of The Golden Rule and reason.

   So, to me, the best three guiding factors for considering an abortion would be:  is the child wanted, is the child the result of a rape and what are the pending health ramifications for the mother and the child in child birth?  There needs to be the nationally legal, over the counter availability of a cheap “morning after” pill.  This pill would result in the least guilt for the woman and the least pain for an unlikely embryo.  On the morning after, there would be very little embryo awareness even if there were an embryo.  Possibly less awareness of pain than grass has when you mow your lawn.

Merry Christmas, Old Buz       12/03/2021      

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Science Lemmings

   Science Lemmings pretty much follow the philosophy of any other group of lemmings.  Lemming groups are represented by such groups as Religious Lemmings, Political Party Lemmings, Family Lemmings and Patriotic Lemmings.  The members of lemming groups don’t primarily think as individuals.  They follow a respected leader.  Some call it faith.  The Science Lemmings once believed that the sun circled the Earth.  This belief was shared by the Religious Lemmings and pretty much everyone else.  It was a popular belief.  By observing the sun from the Earth each day, there was little reason to question the belief.  Belief changes with time, unless it is religious belief.

   Science Lemmings of today pretty much universally believe in The Big Bang Theory.  My understanding of the theory is that about 35 billion years ago a bit of matter, the size of a pinhead exploded BANG and from this explosion the material universe was created.  It has the feel to me of something from nothing, or nearly nothing to everything in the universe.  My experience when questioning anyone in the Science Lemming group is that they believe in big bang, but they can’t actually explain the transaction.  They cannot produce the mathematical formula behind the theory and if they could I probably wouldn’t understand it.

   Neil deGrasse Tyson did say in a Video that I watched that he did believe in the Big Bang Theory and when asked where it took place, he said here, where the Earth is now.  He further explained that anywhere in the universe where the theory is applied, will be the point of origin of the big bang.  I would guess that Neil has a working understanding of the formula.  So the exact location of the bang was anywhere and everywhere.  That is a problem for me.  How could it be?

   Tyson is a very bright man.  I believe that the Science Lemmings may have one small error in their formula.  I see them as tracking awareness, not matter.  That would say that at the moment that life began anywhere, awareness began and awareness is of the Universe.  I don’t know if not living objects have awareness, but I would guess that they don’t.  The concept that the existence of matter requires awareness is not new to Buddhists, but I don’t know that the Buddhist Lemmings associate their beliefs with the Big Bang Theory.  I would offer this concept to the Buddhists, but they probably have no faith in me.  Ho hum.

Cheers, Old Buz   11/24/2021

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One Vote

 

   I believe in democracy.  We in America don’t have one.  Our government is slightly democratic, but so flawed in its basic governing rules and procedures, that it doesn’t function that way.  It gives the effectivness of some voters way more sway than the votes of other voters.  A democratic goal is primarily thwarted by the financial influence exerted on both sides of the aisle.  Secondly, it is thwarted by herd mentality of our two party system.  Our ancestors didn’t fight a revolution to make that the case.  In the best democracy possible, each citizen’s vote would count the same as any other.  That should be our goal and if “we the people” care about it … we need to make it so.

   Largely, our elected representatives are not public servants.  They are Party servants.  Their goal is not improving American lives or the nation itself.  It is improving Party power.  To prove this to yourself you need only watch the vote counts.  Each Party accuses the other of voting like a rubber stamp and in both cases it is true.  Let a representative use their own wisdom and conscience in deciding their vote and they will be attacked and eaten by their fellow Party members.  Examples would be Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for the Democrats or Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney for the Republicans.  The voters of each herd mentality, you folks, are all too happy to follow the Party leader’s lead.  Wouldn’t it be a better world if both we and our representatives thought for ourselves?  I would have no objection to a “filibuster”, 60% requirement to pass legislation, if each representative used their own mind, without party influence.  It would bring about meaningful debate and thoughtful votes.  60% is not an unreasonable requirement for changing a law or the direction of the country.  But two rubber stamp groups, evenly split, will accomplish little.  Our present government has been proving that for decades.

  So, what needs changing?  Start by abolishing political parties and the lobbyists who bribe them.  Do away with political action committees.  The Supreme Court, in their action called Citizens United, corrupted the PACs beyond repair.  In a final election for any office the candidate must get the majority of individual votes from those they represent.  A president, holding a federal office would receive the majority of the votes cast in the nation.  In other words, let’s close the Electoral College.  States and voting districts would only be responsible for counting votes, in a federal election, not determining a winner.  The same concept would be applied to the office holders of a state.  To be elected, they would need the majority of voters in their state to vote for them, in the final election.  No campaign funds would enter the state from outside of the state and only individual citizens could contribute a limited amount to any campaign.  No more corporate or union donations or any other group donation.  The ability to make a small political donation should be a perk that only an individual citizen has.  “We The People.”

   One more bad tooth needs pulling.  It is the U.S. Senate.  This is a group that is anti-democratic by design.  No one disputes the fact that a citizen living in Wyoming (Pop. 581,075) has over 68 times the legislative representation of a citizen living in California (Pop. 39,613,493) in our U.S. Senate.  Each state has but 2 senators.  This may have been a good design when the Constitution was written, but it has no relevance today.  “State’s Rights” has grown grotesque.  Any piece of beneficial legislation can be stopped by this little unrepresentative group.  A two year term of office for a House of Representatives member needs to be expanded to four year terms and the Senators need to be put on a bus out of town.  Let’s make ours a democracy, for the people and do it right.

(By the way … when a nation decides not to pay its debts … the nation has failed.  Why would we choose to fail?)

OUR POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEM HAS OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS.

This I believe, Old Buz   10/25/2021

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Yesterday

 

   Yesterday was 9/11/2021.  Twenty years of yesterdays ago it was 9/11/2001 and that was a sad day here in America.  Three thousand innocent human lives were lost and to me a great hoax was played on our nation.  A dozen and a half Saudi terrorists slammed two commercial aircraft into The Twin Towers and they fell, along with one other building, Building 7, that wasn’t struck by any aircraft.  About this time, you are saying to yourself, “Here we go again.  Another nut cake, conspiracy theorist.”   But, if you force yourself to read on, you will see that I am a believer in science, logic and truth.  Those are not bad things.

   What we all saw on national television on 9/11/2001 was two commercial airliners smash into the side of each of the Twin Towers.  An hour or so later, each of those buildings collapsed and fell to the ground at approximately the acceleration of a freely falling body.  They did not tip.  They each landed exactly on their base.  This fall seemed impossible to me, unless the steel beam structure was completely out of the way of the fall.  It seemed that any beams, not melted, would slow the fall and unless the beams were completely melted, they would cause the building to tip sideways during its fall.  The iron beam structure had to be completely out of the way.  My next thought was that aircraft engines fly from our West Coast to Hawaii, in 10 to 12 hours.  They are made of much the same metal as the Tower beams and burn the same fuel as the fuel burning in the two towers.  The kerosene in the engine is compressed and mixed with forced oxygen for a maximum energy (heat) burn and yet in ten to twelve hours of being exposed to this burn, the engines do not melt.

   Yet, those beams were missing for those two falls.  Fact is, the ambient temperature where the lower beams were located, allowed first responders to climb to the 70^th floor and save some folks from the disaster.  This is because heat rises.  The temperature required to melt the beams is about 2800 degrees F and kerosene burns at about 1800 degrees F.  My source for these temperatures is ae911truth.org.  They are architects and engineers (experts) and do not identify any organization as the perpetrator, but are asking for an unbiased, credible, scientific, reinvestigation of the collapse of 9/11.  I don’t see them as “conspiracy theorists.”  They are pretty straight forward in their analysis.  Their request is reasonable.

Mechanics Illustrated came up with yet another theory.  I don’t believe that anyone other than a few of their subscribers took it seriously.  The theory was that each floor below the impact fell from the weight and force of the floors above falling on it.  If this were true the fall may have tipped and the collapse was not visibly plop …….. plop …… plop …. plop .. plop . plop, it was whoosh.

   Since 9/11, we have watched two buildings demolished.  The Trump Casino in Atlantic City and the remaining half of the Surfside, FL condo.  Both buildings fell at the speed of freefall and both landed on their own footprint.  That is what modern demolition looks like.  It was what the Twin Towers looked like.

   My friend Mike, a construction foreman for commercial structures said, “When I saw the first tower fall, I thought Bin Laden just won the lottery.  When I saw the second one fall, I thought demolition.”  Demolition is not the conclusion of herd mentality.  I believe any well informed independent thinker will reach that conclusion.

Cheers, Old Buz    9/12/2021

 

“It is far easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.”

  - Mark Twain

Liberty

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” – Patrick Henry, Virginia delegate 3/23/1775.  “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – Gov. Dunmore of Virginia 3/20/1775.  This is Patrick quoting his Governor, three days after the original quote, and yet, Patrick Henry is generally given the credit for originating the statement.  This assumes that my on-line research is correct.

Liberty is an often misunderstood concept and each of us has a slightly different understanding of it.  I believe that Adam gave up some of his liberty when he gave up one of his ribs.  That is to say that as the population grows and co-operates for the good of all, we give up some individual liberties.  It is accomplished with empathy and effective legislation.  We give up individual power for the good of the community.  Mandating a vaccine in the time of a pandemic is an example of this.

But this particular blog isn’t about Liberty.  It is about Liberty Mutual and the awareness of their potential customers.  Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance has been advertising on the major cable news networks (MSNBC, CNN and Fox) for over a decade that “Liberty Sells You Only What You Need”.  The ad is repeated several times a day and features a B.S. artist and an Emu.  This is a lot of dollars in advertising, for a long period of time, so it must be very effective.  Since it is presented to both Liberals and Conservatives, we must assume similar gullibility.  You see, I have been buying auto insurance for over sixty years now, through such companies as GEICO, Allstate, State Farm and Farmer’s and I am yet to see a policy that didn’t allow me to choose the level of my coverage.  There are basic requirements set by your State, but above those basic coverages, the level of protection is the buyer’s choice.  That is to say that if Ford Motor Company offered you an automobile with four wheels on the ground, it would be an important feature.  Obviously, all commonly sold cars have four wheels on the ground.  Is it a reason to buy a Ford?  Because if it is, then you are a potential buyer of Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance and I fear that you are in the simple majority.

Another quick note on Liberty Mutual:  I spent a couple of years as the office manager of a Physical Therapy office.  I handled the claims.  Liberty Mutual Health Insurance would often deny a claim or a procedure for no apparent reason.  On calling their claims agent, I was always told to resubmit the claim and they would pay it.  They did pay it.  This seems to make no sense, but it does if you realize that many office managers will accept, without question, the determination of the insurance claims department.  The other important point here is that you, as a patient, agree that all charges by your provider are your primary responsibility and that your doctor is merely accepting payment from your insurance company, in place of your payment.  Any portion of your bill not paid by your insurance company is your responsibility.

This particular blog post is not about Liberty Mutual.  They are not alone.  It is about this nation’s acceptance of obvious lies.  A great philosopher once said, “See what is plain to see.  Doubt what is not.”  When you doubt something … research it.

Cheers, Old Buz   8/28/2021

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The Blue Origin of Pessimism

I woke this morning to watch Jeff Bezos nearly fly into space along with two other very wealthy people and one 82 year old woman who earned her place.  The announcer proudly informed me that it was at the expense of the great entrepreneur and passenger, Jeff Bezos.  Well actually the investment was primarily furnished by decades of government (your) investment in space technology and your Amazon PD purchases.  In other words, you financed that tiny blip into the border of space.  I don’t mean to belittle the accomplishment.  I fully intend to buy a ticket on a private space ship when the journey will be one rotation around the Earth and the cost of the ticket is under $10.  I would like to see Hispanic Americans, Black Americans, Asian Americans and un-vaccinated Trump Monkeys (who will be rare after Covid-19 is finished with them).  But, I don’t wish to see any of these groups identified or segregated in the ship’s seating.  Like Jeff, I don’t want to fly the damn thing.  I only want to be a passenger.  Let artificial intelligence fly it.  I want to arrive back safely.

Ask yourself if private industry will ever likely mine materials outside of our atmosphere?  Answer yourself, of course not.  The cost of the journey will always exceed the value of the ore.  If in fact it could be accomplished centuries from now how much infrastructure would you be willing to sacrifice, in the meantime, in order to see Amazon PD’s grandchildren benefit from your investment?  When the corporate masters have sucked the planet dry, poisoned its water, poisoned its air and left only the cockroaches and the one percent of humans still alive, what satisfaction will you get from sending 50 or so rich folks off to Mars?  If there is a God and He has a sense of humor, their ship will crash on entry. This will be His best joke ever.  Better even than Noah’s Ark.

I am not anti-science.  But I do like science for the benefit of the planet, not one percent of its human population.  When our government spends billions to go out and bring back a quart of earth from a spot on a passing asteroid, I ask myself does that quart sample fairly represent the entire asteroid and does that asteroid represent all of the asteroids in the Universe?  So … what did we learn, for the billions spent?  Spend the money on education.  Spend the money on health care.  Spend the money on a clean air power grid.  Spend the money on infrastructure.  Spend the money on stopping drought on our planet.  When you have done this, look for other beneficial ways to invest.  You aren’t really investing money.  You are investing human toil, human ingenuity and human values.  Make them benefit all.

Cheers, Old Buz   7/20/2021

“Born an agnostic and with the help of GOD will remain one.” 

Freedom

In America, we like to think of ourselves as free …. And we are.  But there is a well thought out quote on the subject, “With freedom comes responsibility.”  And this implies, “That actions bring consequences.”  Well then, if we are free to act or not act, we are responsible for the results of our actions or inaction.

Our present health care system is striving for herd immunity from a covid pandemic by way of vaccine shots, appropriate social distancing and mask wearing.  You, as a Free American are free not to comply.  You are not forced to protect your family or your friends and neighbors.  It is your right not to.

So the real problem here is not herd immunity, it is herd mentality.  I believe that the herd referred to here is sheep.  Some would say it is cattle.  I won’t argue the point.  There is a herd mentality that believes the medical experts, in that vaccines will stop the spread of the disease.  There is another herd that believes their leader, Donald Trump, who says, “I don’t listen to the experts, I listen to my gut.”  I process waste products in my gut and so does he.

If you want to be free not to take the vaccine and expose health care workers to 17 hour days, hospitals filled to beyond capacity, healthcare workers families undue exposure to the virus and the destruction of our economy, then don’t go to the hospital with the virus.  See that hospitals are closed to those who refused the vaccine, back a law that would prevent you, in a moment of weakness, from entering a hospital due to covid, unless you were medically prevented from taking the vaccine or it wasn’t available to you.  We can demand fair legislation.  “With Freedom Comes Responsibility”.  Stand up.  Be strong.  Be gone.  Your bravery will improve the nation. 

To those of you freedom fighters who won’t wear a mask or take the vaccine, thank “Q” for sharing.

Cheers and Happy Independence Day, Old Buz       7/4/2021

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Surfside Condo

 

 I have a hypothesis for what caused the collapse of the building recently in Surfside, Florida.  The Surfside, FL Condo Collapse Was Caused by The Builder Using Beach Sand To Make The Concrete Used To Construct The Building.  See what you think.

1.      It was not a failure in architecture or engineering because it stood through 40 years of hurricanes and gale force winds.  Then fell on a quiet night.  It rotted from within.

2.      Most concrete buildings are located near the water, because 80% of our population lives near water, in large cities.  Most of the water is salt water.  Think of cities like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Miami and San Diego.  All have salt breezes.

3.      Many of the concrete buildings, by the sea, are well over 100 years old and yet they do not collapse.

4.      Many bridges are built of concrete and stand in salt water.  They do not crumble in forty years, nor do the nearby buildings.

5.      It is cheaper to gather local beach sand than purchase salt-free, commercial inland sand to mix with the cement.

6.      The Surfside condo rubble isn’t composed primarily of large slabs of concrete.  It is small clumps, indicating decomposition.

7.      Before my wife and I moved to Oregon it was investigated and determined that a recently built bridge on Highway 1, near Florence, collapsed because the contractor that built it used beach sand to make the concrete for the bridge.  Beach sand plus cement creates a soon to be crumbling concrete.

8.      A probable NSA investigation, which will likely be somewhat influenced by corporate America, will probably determine that the probable cause was salt air destroying this 40 year old building.  After all, we would like to believe that a large construction company would not use beach sand in constructing a concrete commercial building, even if it saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars.  And who knows what other structures this company used this practice in building? 

 

“Common Wisdom is an oxymoron.” – Old Buz     6/29/2021

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Your Military Spending

 

Rank	Country	Annual Spending in US $	Population	You Spent
1	United States	$732,000,000,000.00	331002651	$2,211.46
2	China	$261,000,000,000.00	1439323776	$181.34
3	India	$71,100,000,000.00	1380004385	$51.52
4	Russian Federation	$65,100,000,000.00	145934462	$446.09
5	Saudi Arabia	$61,900,000,000.00	34813871	$1,778.03
6	France	$50,100,000,000.00	65273511	$767.54
7	Germany	$49,300,000,000.00	83783942	$588.42
8	United Kingdom	$48,700,000,000.00	67886011	$717.38
9	Japan	$47,600,000,000.00	126476461	$376.35
10	South Korea	$43,900,000,000.00	51710000	$848.97
11	Australia	$27,500,000,000.00	25499884	$1,078.44
Total of #2-11		$726,200,000,000.00

I got to thinking about the blog I posted on 3/25 about our annual military spending and realized that it might be more meaningful to consider how much, on average, each of us spends per annum on our military. We are real patriots here in America. If you take the annual military spending and divide it by the number of citizens in our country, the result for 2019 is $2,211.46 per citizen, per year. That is very impressive when you realize that the average citizen of China only spent $181.34. To accomplish this amazing feat the US spent an annual 732 billion dollars. The Germans, who we generally consider a fairly military nation, spent a little over 49 billion. I would like to spend the same as Germany on our military annually. This would give us 680 billion dollars a year to spend on things like buying the Amazon (no relation to Jeff Bezos) rain forest and replanting the trees that give us our clean air and normal climate. Or perhaps to give our nation Universal Health Care. Or perhaps to desalinate some ocean water, in the Southwest and stop the drought. We could use the money to educate our best and our brightest, not our wealthiest. We could use it to repair our infrastructure. There are many ways to spend the money that will be of greater benefit than on our military.

You get the point. Do we really need to outspend the next ten nations in the World, combined? Does that spending create or destroy our future? How does operating a giant military serve or better our country? What good is another atomic aircraft carrier, or an inter-continental nuclear missile? We can still wave our flags and call ourselves patriots without the military waste.

I'm a patriot, just like you are, but I am a Patriot of The Planet. You should try it. You will make better decisions for our country and for the world. We are the richest nation on Earth. How well do we use it? That $2,211 per year will go a long way. It need not be an investment in war.

Cheers, Old Buz 6/28/2021

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Ceasefire in Israel/Gaza/Palestine

   Determining fault in this conflict is impossible.  The problem is point of view and the point in history where you begin the dialog.  Humans involved are not capable of taking an unbiased attitude and their Mythological God (or Allah) could care less.

   So what can be agreed upon to stop the killing and destruction?  A ceasefire would be a good starting point, but how would it be called a ceasefire if the rockets continue to be fired?  I don’t see how meaningful future negotiations can take place under rocket fire or even a temporary halt to the decades old continued rocket attacks.

   Israel is the superior military authority over the Palestinians and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.  It would be wise for Hamas not to provoke them.  Cuba has demonstrated this wisdom in not attacking or engaging in terrorism in The United States.  When a Hamas patriot gets on an Israeli bus and blows it up, or shoots up a 2^nd grade classroom, or fires a rocket into Israel, they are killing Palestinian children and hardening the rules of occupation. It is simply cause and effect.

   So what is my peace plan for Israel?

1.    Put an end to all terrorist activity in the area.  This can only be effectively accomplished with Palestinian policing of Palestinians and Israeli policing of Israelis. 

2.     Pull Israeli military and police out of Gaza.

3.    Stop the building of Jewish settlements where Israel has agreed not to.

4.    Normalize Palestinian Citizenship in Israel as much as you can normalize the rights of a Muslim in a Jewish nation (remembering that Muslim nations are common to the Middle East).

5.    Re-establish human empathy to the area.

   We are yet to establish #5 in the United States.  Citizens of color are still an underclass here.  As an agnostic, I am also treated as a second class citizen.  Most political speeches to the nation end with “God Bless America” and the Oath of Allegiance to my country includes, “One Nation under God.”  So I live in a nation of religion.  That is what is and I believe in what is.  For me, I deal with what is by writing a blog.  For Israel, the best way to deal with “what is” is remembering their Golden Rule.  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  That is in the Hebrew Bible as well as the Koran.

Cheers, Old Buz     5/20/2021

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com 

Qualified Immunity for Police

Is it a good policy that holds police unaccountable for illegal or immoral acts?   That is in fact what Police Qualified Immunity does.   I believe that most citizens would agree that it is a bad policy. It sends the wrong message.  The police officer ought not to be above the law.   They should set the example of following the law.   They are the representatives of the law.

 So is this really a non-issue?   In America our law enforcement officers shoot and kill over a thousand citizens a year.   From what we see on the news, most victims are of color.   Our European allies’ police officers shoot and kill from zero to ten citizens a year.   In many European nations the police don’t even bring a gun into a non-violent situation.   It remains locked in their vehicle or not issued to them.   I would say that the number of killings by police in our nation, when compared to the nations of Europe, very definitely represents a problem in America.   Every policeman knows that their job is not to be judge, jury and punishment for a crime, but with police qualified immunity, they are rarely held responsible for violating this principle.

 Each criminal assault by a policeman must be brought to trial, the same as a criminal assault by any citizen. And perhaps, a police officer should be held to a higher standard and face stiffer sentencing guidelines because of the badge and gun they wear and the justice system they represent.   “Break the law. Go to jail.”  It matters not what uniform you wear at work.

 I believe that the above is reasonable in the application of criminal law.  Civil lawsuits (financial penalty) are a different matter.   I would not hold the on duty officer financially responsible for their actions.   This seems contrary to my position on criminal liability and perhaps it is.  The problem I see here is that we are a nation of frivolous lawsuits for outrageous amounts.   However, you and I are subjected to that reality, why not the police officer?   Our first responders don’t generally have the financial ability to reimburse the public for any large financial damage suffered as a result of their violent actions.   Take away the officer’s financial immunity and the result will be either a large dollar award resulting in their bankruptcy (no payment for the financial damage done), or liability insurance required of all officers.   This liability in today’s environment would be very costly for the insurer.   The result would be very high premiums.   Either the officer would need an increase in pay to cover this required expense, or the department that hires them would pay their premium.   Either way the ultimate cost is to the taxpayer for the wrongdoing of a police officer.

 So, where do we find justice for the financially harmed by the unlawful actions of a police officer?  The police department and its administrators need to feel the pain, as well as the officer, but ultimately the taxpayer still pays the cost of poor hiring and training of officers.  The annual expense of these officer’s actions must be tracked and posted on the administrative reports of their supervisors and to the press.   Hold those who hire and direct the officers responsible, as well as the “bad apple” and you will ultimately cure the problem.   A police commissioner living under our present system of police qualified immunity, will tend to hire a high school football player or a Special Forces veteran, whose previous training is inflicting human damage, rather than a member of the school choir, whose previous training is to make music?   Let our fire departments hire the brave ex- warriors.

 Cheers, Old Buz         5/17/2021 

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Annual Military Spending 2019

        Annual Military Spending 2019                 

             

Rank	Country	Annual Spending in US $
1	United States	$732,000,000,000.00
2	China	$261,000,000,000.00
3	India	$71,100,000,000.00
4	Russian Federation	$65,100,000,000.00
5	Saudi Arabia	$61,900,000,000.00
6	France	$50,100,000,000.00
7	Germany	$49,300,000,000.00
8	United Kingdom	$48,700,000,000.00
9	Japan	$47,600,000,000.00
10	South Korea	$43,900,000,000.00
11	Australia	$27,500,000,000.00
Total of #2-11	(The Next 10 Nations)	$726,200,000,000.00

   These are the latest figures from SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) on annual military spending for 2019. They were flashed on the screen by Fareed Zakaria on his CNN show this last weekend. Our nation spends more on our military annually than the next ten nations combined spend on theirs. We exceed their total expenditure by nearly six billion dollars. I found that hard to believe, so I researched it. These numbers don't include North Korea because North Korea doesn't open its accounting to the folks in Stockholm, but if they did, the chart would look about the same because North Korea is a small industrial nation that according to US State Department estimates spent between $3.7 billion and $4.2 billion in 2017. Italy spends over 5 times that much on their military and they didn't make the Top 11 List.

So what do the nations on this chart have in common? Well, all but The United States and Saudi Arabia offer their citizens universal health care. The largest industrial nation in the world “can't afford it” and the Saudis, who brought you 9/11, could care less about their citizens. Care is for the Crown.

Would you expect US to win more often, seeing the above figures? I would, but I may not be giving enough weight to the fact that our Army is always playing an away game. Perhaps it doesn't matter if we win or lose. It may only be important that we spend the money. Spending money on the military is a bipartisan endeavor. “Have gun will travel” reads the card of our nation. As the chart shows, the industrial military lobbyists are more powerful than anyone you elect. They slop over in to civilian arms sales as well. Perhaps that is why gun safety legislation, with 70% popular support never makes it into legislation. So many wonderful things (and people) money can buy.

Look to the above list for the reason the most powerful industrial nation in the world doesn't have free K-16 quality education, universal free health care, improved infrastructure, a reliable renewable energy grid and intelligent gun legislation. Every time we spend another billion on our military, another cigar butt is thrown from a yacht into the Mediterranean and a thousand human beings die.

Cheers, Old Buz 3/25/2021                                                         iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Patriotism is Willful Ignorance

You may see the title of this blog post as despicable. I simply see it as true. To be a patriot, you would have a point of view that favors the place of your birth. By being willfully ignorant, you take notice of that which favors your point of view, while ignoring that which does not. Do you see a problem with my conclusion? To me, the two concepts are synonyms. So call me names. I'm OK with that.

I'll try to offer some obvious support to my quote. If you were a Japanese Citizen in the late 1930s, you saw the United States Navy place a blockade on your small island nation because the US sided with China in a centuries old battle. Your country then attacked a US Naval base that supported the blockade. A blockade of an island nation is clearly an act of war. The United States later ended the war with a nuclear attack on two civilian populations. Yes, the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons (weapons of mass destruction) on a civilian population, now objects to Iran having them. Iran would be but one of a dozen nations in today's world with nuclear weapon capability. How would you, as an American Patriot, state the history of these events? Would it be different than the view of the Japanese Patriot? Is either position true?

Another example would be the Vietnamese Patriot's view of our actions in Vietnam. We supported a corrupt government against a civil uprising. The primary excuse used was an attack on a US Naval vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin. Eye witness reports and the narration given by our acting Secretary of Defense, at the time, Robert McNamara, was that the attack was friendly fire in the fog. You can witness McNamara’s testimony in The Fog of War. A patriot, born in Vietnam, would probably say we had no business interfering in that war. American opinions vary on the involvement of our troupes in Vietnam, but I would guess that a true American Patriot backed that war. “My country, right or wrong, my country.” “United We Stand.”

Move forward to our involvement in the Middle East (starting in Iraq). We are there based on 9/11 and “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. George W. Bush has admitted that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and anyone who is not willfully blind, having even a slight knowledge of physics, is aware that the Twin Towers fell by means of demolition. They obviously did not “burn down”. So, God Bless America, where the patriots live in a much rosier world than I do.

“Without Patriots there would be no war.” - The Pacifist

Cheers, Old Buz 3/6/2021

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Born an agnostic and with GOD's help will remain one.

Corona Light Refinance

 

We are at a point in time when tens of millions of folks witha good credit rating and adequate equity in their home are about to be foreclosed on and made homeless through no fault of their own.  The folks who will foreclose on them will lose reliable customers and devalue their asset base, by crashing the housing market.  Could it be that there is possibly a better answer to the problem?

I recently refinanced my home, taking advantage of a lower interest rate and lowering my monthly payment by one hundred dollars.  The downside was temporarily lowering my equity in my home, but in balance I decided that a decrease in monthly payments was the greater consideration.  I asked the mortgage servicing representative how lowering my interest rate was an advantage to his company.  He explained to me that the company’s primary income is a fee paid by the government mortgage corporations for the servicing of the loan and that they don’t want to see my business taken away by another mortgage servicing company offering the same lower rate that they are offering me.  They also profit from their new loan origination fees.  This all seemed reasonable to me, so I went with the offer.

So what am I suggesting here?  Design a mortgage refinance that will keep good customers in their homes and protect the value of the home and the income stream as well.  How would you do this?  Create a new Coved 19 Mortgage refinance program that would put a moratorium on mortgage payments for people unemployed by the virus.  Have the government pay the mortgage servicing companies the same fee for not collecting the payments as they were for collecting them.  This is a far lower cost to the government than foreclosure.  Have payments resume when employment for the borrower resumes.    Precompute the new payment with no penalties, but with the loss to the government of interest income added back into the principal and the payments resumed for a period equal to the original term of the loan.  If no increase in payment amount is desired, lengthen the term of the loan accordingly.  This all would require some cooperation from government and mortgage service companies and the borrowers, but it would benefit them all.  It would be a way that capitalism could serve the nation.  There is a touch of socialism thrown in as well.  The two systems work well in concert with each other and they always have.  All that is required is skill and reason being applied.

Cheers, Old Buz   2/2/2021

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

January 6th, 2021

 

I want to start by apologizing to you for waiting a couple of weeks to write this blog.  I was waiting for a news commentator to raise this question.  “Why were the rioters who overran The Capital not armed?  And, how much control from above would it take to accomplish this?

The Trump Heroes were not armed for their attack on the Capital.  The cause was to disrupt the authority of Congress to verify the results of the Electoral College, the same College that handed Trump the presidency despite his loss in the people’s popular vote of 2016.

Some would claim that the Trump Monkeys were a pure grass roots movement of the Proud Boys, “Q”anon and other misguided simpletons arriving on the Trump Train, but no, they were obviously under strict control from above (or below).  Folks, they were unarmed!  These are 2^nd amendment, right to bear arms folks.  You see them in your supermarket.  They wear a gun to shop for apples.  Did you see any assault rifles or semiautomatic pistols during the insurrection, being carried by the rioters?  I know I didn’t.  Those orders not to go in armed were issued and absolutely followed.  And why was this in their marching orders?  Why do they not follow the same rules when marching on a state capital? 

One, this was not designed as a peaceful march to the Capital.  It was an insurrection and riot.  It could be argued that they could have been armed for a peaceful march.  Again, a peaceful march was not their intention.  Their intention was to stop our democracy from functioning by entering and taking control of our capital.

Two, a gun battle would have ended ultimately in their defeat.  Trump Monkeys do not yet control our military.  If armed, one of the Monkeys would have fired his weapon in that riot and Hell would have been released.  This was a public relations stunt and only a fool (Trump) would think that it would delay the Biden administration.  This nation has not been softened enough for a successful armed insurrection.  At this time, a gun battle would have been bad public relations. So yes, January 6^th was under very rigid control.  Please let me know if any of my assumptions or observations are incorrect.

Cheers, Old Buz     1/22/21

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Trump Monkeys on Reality TV

 

Yesterday, January 6^th, 2021, I was treated to my first entire viewing of a reality TV show.  It featured the Trump Monkeys vs. the Keystone Cops.  It was priceless.  A great show.  The narrators moaned, “The end of democracy” but in fact, democracy had ended years before.  The scam of legislation continued that very evening with the House/Senate confirming the Electoral College vote of all 50 states.  The trashing of the legislative building had a small, short term effect on its operation.  Actually its operation came to a close years ago when Mitch McConnell stated that he would no longer bring any bill to the floor for debate or a vote, unless he had first determined if the President would sign it.  This placed the actions of the legislature under the direct control of The President.  We no longer had a functioning legislative branch of the government, since no law could go into effect without the approval of both houses.  Hundreds of pieces of legislation stopped on The Majority Leader of The Senate’s desk.  Nancy Pelosi has the same power in The House of Representatives.  These are draconian rules of procedure in the legislature, but I don’t hear any screaming from the representatives you sent to Washington.  Your representatives fight like hell to get a bill placed indefinitely, on a majority leader’s desk.  You even send them donations to get these meaningless bills passed.

I have to pause for a moment and apologize for using the term, “Trump Monkeys,” It is an insult to monkeys.  Some monkeys show great intelligence.  On the other hand, when a candidate for office tells you that he “grabs any woman’s pussy he wants to and they can’t say anything because he is a star”  he is telling you that he is either a rapist or a liar and in our president’s case we later learned that he was both.  In his four years as President, he did not grow in character.  Some of you voted for him. 

The question has been raised, “Were the Trump Monkeys treated better by the Keystone Cops than they would have been had they been black?”  What’s the question?  The monkeys were treated like friends.  Police shoot unarmed black men in the back when they are offering no threat.  We see that on the news often.  The least the Keystones could have done was turn some fire hoses on those marauding monkeys.  It was cold in DC.  Perhaps even arrested a few more.

Will any action be taken by the government against The Golden Ass for instigating this riot in the next couple of weeks, before he leaves office?  Probably not.  Ho hum.  God Bless America.

Cheers, Old Buz 1/7/2021

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com