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

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

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

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

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