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

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com 

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