Two completely different topics

Going to discuss a bit of sports and a bit of music tonight.

First of all, as you probably know, January has been a rough month for music fans of my age. We lost David Bowie, Glenn Frey of the Eagles, and now Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane/Starship.  Of course the stars of my era are now at the age where this is going to happen more often. The journey down memory lane will become all too familiar.

And the kids don’t want to hear how much better our music is than theirs, yet if you look at the three people who just passed the diversity of styles is hard to find in today’s world. And I am not saying which is better, but so much of today’s music seems very repetitive. The club music just seems a beat down. Of course during the era of the above artists, the music was more of an experience. Yes people danced and went to clubs, but it was more concert oriented with many of the popular acts of the 60s and 70s. In this atmosphere the development of music themes and experimentation with new ideas was encouraged. Today the emphasis is on the dance scene, so we get more of the rhythmic pounding.

And it is not all this club scene; there are some good pop type artists like Adele to the more alternative sounds of bands like AWOL Nation. Of course the Hip Hop scene or what they call it now is very popular and it at times is very influenced by rhythm and blues, yet sometimes it can be repetitive. I think Bruno Mars though is a great example of evolving the rhythm and blues style making it his own and bringing it forward to today’s world. So no matter what we say there is talent and good talent today.

Overall though I feel the difference in the variety of and overall music is much more pronounced in the 60s and 70s. There is the popular statement of my generation: Our people knew how to play their instruments. And if you look at the above artists you see people who did play, sing, and most importantly write their music. It was a wonderful era and these people and soon unfortunately many others will be missed.  

Okay it is time for the arm chair coach comment of the day: I have an idea on how to beat the Golden State Warriors. No I haven’t been drinking tonight and all the arm chair Monday morning quarterbacks are laughing at this statement.

And realistically much would have to go your way, but there are strategies that could be viable. And yes I saw most of the dismantling of the Spurs and then the cool we got this third quarter against the Mavs when the Mavs got close the other night.  And this is where I got part of my idea. They let Golden State do what it does best, besides getting unbelievably hot at a moments’ notice.

I do not watch the Warriors every night, but I think everyone knows their athleticism, speed, along with their shooting is a key factor to their success. And the way they can space a floor certainly takes advantage of these attributes.

So the first goal is to force them in shrinking the floor. I do not know how many times there were back door cuts because the Spurs went out to guard them on the three point line, including the Spurs bigs guarding the players playing the 4 and 5 for the Warriors. The Spurs then the Mavs just looked at of sync. This was set up so you have to discipline yourself to try and force them off the perimeter and into the paint.

Oh yeah you say. They tore it up in the paint, especially Curry against the Spurs and Klay against the Mavs. Their ability to make 3s at the drop of a hat makes this so much easier for them. Yet the better game is to play them 2 points on 2 points. Do not let them get away with two players hitting 6 of 12 threes in the game. You don’t want to give them the paint, but you want them to attack the paint so even if they make the basket it is easier for you to try and make up 2 points than try to keep up with their 3 point shooting.  And this is just the back strategy.

The main focus while playing defense like I mentioned is to force/encourage them into the paint so this means going around screens and chasing them all over the place and when they turn the corner on a screen and head for the basket this is where you have to adjust. I wish I could draw on Word so I could show you this flow, but here goes:

Curry or Klay go around a Bogut or Green screen and if the guard can get around the screen and only be right behind them then Curry/Klay head for the basket. Their speed means the defending guard cannot keep up in most cases. So the 5 must adjust to the driving Warrior, their passing skills are so strong that they pass to the open big when the defending 5 etc makes the move towards them. The first difference is the guard heads straight to fronting the big in the lane. If your big positions himself well and cuts off the basket, but keeps himself in check Curry will look to pass to the rolling Green or whoever, having the defending guard not double Curry allows that guard to cut off if not step in front of the pass which forces Curry to make a third choice and hopefully by this time he is limited in his options or puts up a mortal shoot.

Now the next choice is for a kick out to the corner for a three and Warriors are one of the best at this so the defenders must stay home no matter how much you think it would be better for the wing defender to come in and double Curry/Klay/Green on the drive. You must double in the lane with the other big or bring in the person covering whoever is at the perimeter at the top of the key. This would be the hardest pass back for the driving Warrior. Your goal is to force a shot by the driving Warrior over a big or trying to pass back to another Warrior coming into the lane to follow and having the defending guard on the original drive now covering the passing lane you have a chance for turnovers or bad shoots in the lane. The Warriors are good enough that they will get their share, but as long as you keep them honest inside and limit their three point shooting you have a chance defensively.

Offensively you have to rely on what you do best, but if you can keep them shooting twos you can keep them close. There are a few extra or slightly different things you will need to do to give your offense a chance. You need to run your offense through whoever Curry is guarding. You must keep him occupied on defense. Yes he is good and can get turnovers so you have to work it well, but he must play defense and as much as possible.

Second you have to get into transition as fast as possible, you will not beat them up the floor on a regular basis, but you got to move it to get started. Then if you go to half court offense go to the above strategy. And the running has to be done. You may have to use your bench a bit more than you normally do so having a deep small ball bench will be beneficial. And even when they make baskets you have to get back up the court. Remember when Kurt Rambis would literally take the ball just as it was coming out of the basket step out of bounds with one foot and get it to Magic Johnson on the run almost the whole game for the 80’s Lakers. Yes I am talking about this level of intensity the whole game. And it has to be under control even with quick passing and Warrior defending guards with good hand speed reaching in to take a swipe at it.  If you don’t beat the Warriors up the Court then you are playing half court offense and making Curry play defense.

This is just a framework. Every team has their own strengths they will have to play to and play well, but limiting the Warrior spacing so they lose some of the advantage of their speed and athleticism and keeping the ball movement in a smaller window gives your defense a chance to guard people without doubling too much and leaving people open on the perimeter. Yes Curry/Thompson/Green etc will step back and try to bring you come to them and if you don’t they will shoot, but if you stay disciplined and put your best defender out there so you don’t chase them and create the space you have a better chance.  Yes your bigs will need to stay home to prevent the back doors etc… disciplined and awareness are going to be two of your best friends.

Just some crazy basketball dreaming on a very pleasant evening here in North Texas. 

Peace out

Just another one of those conspiracy theories

Yes the paranoid blogs still live. I love wanting to be a fiction writer.

Where do I go with this? My brain really got ramped up when the National Review dedicated so much energy in saying we don’t want Trump.  To me that looks really suspicious.  First of all, the most “revered” name in conservative talking heads going bat caca over one man is pretty astounding. And then like I said I started thinking about it. Why spend so much energy trying to take him down when this is exactly what excites his audience? Is this too obvious or am I just crazy?  So the brain started back tracking, the creative juices went nuts and lo and behold the ultimate Donald Trump conspiracy.

The Machiavellian aspect of this is way out there, but you never know.  So 8-9 months ago Donald Trump announces his candidacy with a very outlandish statement about building a wall to keep out all the drugs and rapists from Mexico. The press jumps on it.   Realistically no one can really begin a Presidential campaign with that much insanity unless there was something behind it? Could a few well-placed people make sure the press jumps on it. Sure most of the press would be going along with such a fantastic story. Yet if you knew there was an audience and enough of an audience then you might be able to get off to this kind of start. It is always about planting seeds.  Remember he had a long run with the birther movement.   Could the seeds have gone back that far or did someone recognize the potential and then got in Donald’s ear?

Tell a very narcissistic egotistic man, you can be President. And you can do it by being you. You tell the world what you want or could they have even helped him with some of this craziness.

And the statements continued to come. The audiences grow bigger and the more the Press denounces him the more his audience loved him. The more the establishment denounces him the more his audience grows.

The TEA party was already a worked up audience and now their beloved takeover of the House has failed. The bitterness of not getting what they want grows. And certain people notice, maybe even the people who helped redirect the original grass movement of the TEA party or could they have started it themselves. How far back does this plan go???????????

So find the man who can ignite the fear, who cares not about what people think as long as they think of him and that man was found. So go to him, talk in his ear, think about you being President. You will go down in history forever. You would not be beholden to anyone, you are your own man. He jumps at the chance.

The audience buys the product. The press feeds the product. How can anyone run without spending any money? How can they get twice as much press coverage as anyone else? How do they control the debates?  

Someone or some ones, working way deep, planting people in the crowds to increase the fever, working behind the media curtain, pressing for more outrage at him, demanding answers as to why he can get away with what he wants, slowly creating the image he is his own man. He can take on the media and the establishment and win. He is our man yell the people.

And even more craziness starts to happen, first the high elite of the conservative world denounce him, yet the whispering begins that maybe some conservative elites may be thinking about him, he states we can deal once I am in office because I am the ultimate dealmaker and I will win those deals. The people adore me.

All the while the competition is being pushed by the way side.  Anyone that comes close to challenging him is made out to be a loser, not because of policy or ideals or substance, but because of superficial name calling. Who cares about issues? Donald has the answer. “I will make America great again”  I have not a clue as to how, but because I am Donald Trump I will make it happen. The people cheer.

Now there are senators wanting to change the rules, give more power to the President to fight ISIS. What? Congress giving up one of its primary functions under the concept of checks and balances? Why would they do that? I mean the arch enemy Obama is President,,, really they want to increase HIS war powers?  Or could they be thinking ahead? Yeah let the President have blanket authority to fight whomever  wherever even in the good ole USA as long as it’s the bad guys; the terrorists   Hmmm….. who decides who are the terrorists?  Hmmmmm……. Why would Congress want to give up so much power? Unless someone said to them, we, who pay you, think this is a good idea. If Obama asks for this, does the Republican controlled Congress go along? Hmmm…..shoot does any self respecting Congress go along? Yet somehow someway under Obama’s watch people are offering this. Hmmm…..

The time to vote is approaching, the numbers in the polls increase, and the people flock to the Man.  No real organization, no real policy argument, no hard core team on the ground ready to get out the vote, yet……the only question left is will the fans vote? The noise is loud, the pundits are mystified, and someone or some people sit very quietly in the background and smile.

They bought Congress a long time ago, now they have the ego in place who will believe he is leading us into greatness, all the while following the plan. Donald will continue to wave the stars and stripes and tell the people the USA is the greatest.                                             Well until it is too late.

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And all the above because a group of elitist conservatives cannot figure out what to do with a bombastic egotist who is the most infamous and famous politician in a long time. You would think our country could

offer more. Well at least my over active imagination isn’t failing because of him. Or do they even know? Hmmmm…..

And whether or not, if you believe this high fiction, that Donald is being played or is part of it doesn’t matter. It could be happening right before our eyes.

Long live the constitution, the constitution is dying.

And if for some reason you read in the news about some ole crazy person being shot in a random shooting here in the Dallas area with no motive.   Hmmmmmm….

Those damn random thoughts and comments

The better half has a passing interest in sports so on occasion she will come up with some wild opinions while watching a game with me. The other day though she went off on an announcer. I don’t think I have ever heard anyone criticize someone on their speaking ability for a sporting event and if so never near how much she was frustrated at this guy. I am still laughing about it. The person was a player so as a guy I am more interested in his analysis I guess.

Are we to the point where it would be easier to put a man on Mars than govern ourselves with some rationality? Or even find candidates that have a chance of putting together a cohesive platform, much less cohesive policy when they get elected?

And I tell myself all the time to write something down. You go through the day and an idea will pop up in your head and you say to yourself I want to remember that. I have this phone that I can text myself, do I use it????? No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and of course I do not remember it. And then out of the blue I do remember something, do I write it down or text myself?  No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And yet I can remember to think to myself, no I don’t need to write it down, I will remember it. So there are some things I was thinking about earlier today that have fallen between two neurons in my brain slipped down through the cracks in my neck vertebrae  now are becoming digested and soon will be released from my body just like all the other waste products my body produces.   Sad

There is a headline on the news sites right now that says Mitch McConnell ready to give President unlimited war powers. Does he know who is running?

A quick proposal thought

I was reading that GE is going to sell their appliance business to a company from China. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it.

Got me to thinking since according to the article the actual business was going to stay at their current location and keep the same management team; why couldn’t we have created a plan and sold it to the current management team and maybe include the employees. This may be one way to help reduce the wealth gap in our country.

One of the reasons the wealth gap has been increasing is because so many businesses merge and consolidate. Wouldn’t diversifying some large corporations be one way to reduce this trend?

This may take some work to accomplish and the first few times something like this was completed there is going to see some scrutiny. And this scrutiny is good since we want this to succeed.

How all this would come to fruition would be interesting and beneficial. If this works, then many companies could be recreated here. The ownership stays here and this adds wealth to a larger group of people.

So why do we not do this more often? I know this is not an original idea because I have heard of it before. And yes getting started is difficult, but success always takes hard work. What this shows is a lack of leadership in encouraging this to happen more often.

If the Republican Party is the party of business and free enterprise why are they not fighting hard to make this happen? Sure would beat having Mr. Sanders redistribute wealth via the government and we wouldn’t need a ton of government agencies to do everything if policy is well written. This won’t solve all our problems, yet make it part of many ideas to turn this country around.

Just proves the Republicans are not true business oriented, not true conservatives, and not for the people of this country. They are more beholden to the beltway lobbyists and Wall Street than to us.

Proof is always in the pudding.   Ha ha ha 

Another ingredient in the pudding…. And a side note

There is the old saying “the proof is in the pudding” and the pudding is my continuation of why the Democrats and Republicans are failing us. And this one is about addressing a specific activity.

As you may have read somewhere or on occasion I talk much about how if the Democrats and Republicans were actually representing us then items like the wealth gap wouldn’t be so large, true wage and true spending power would be up over the last forty-fifty years instead of in a long decline.

Today though I want to talk about comparing how much time they spend on getting re elected rather than representing you. These are just quick thoughts.

I am not talking about the outsize number of times Congress is not in session even though that can be a problem. Tonight is more about developing policy vs elections.

So I ask you to compare for yourselves how much energy each party spends on collecting voter data, analyzing voter data, heck even stealing voter data amongst themselves, developing programs to pinpoint exactly who might vote down to the precinct level and more versus how much time the parties and the candidates develop policies that might help the greater good.

And you may say, I hear all the time their goals. The candidates spend millions on ads espousing campaign information. And yes they do, but it is mostly slogans and phrases and long standing ideological statements to prove to their base that they are on target.

They do not spend anywhere near the same amount of time analyzing what programs work in our government, which ones don’t, what could be improved, creating true priority lists of what we need as a country. The work that would actually be representing you in a Republic form of government.

Yep they do tons of work, but not one iota of it benefits you as a citizen of the United States and this includes federal, state and local level. But damn they sure know how to get you to vote. Takes much work to do that. So yes our politicians work hard…… for themselves

And on a second note, I wrote some general comments on a news story about Ms. Clinton and one of the replies I got back was the GOP was worse. And actually similar comments happen all the time to my posts since I make comments representing an independent point of view and sometimes rehashing different ways to continue to say how our two major parties are failing us.

I did take notice this time and I wanted to say this version of worse is you being subjective. You say the GOP is worse because you support the Democrats and so by your standards they are worse, but step back and analyze which party has succeeded in governing responsibly. And then both sides would say we do; the other side doesn’t. And again it is subjective.

I wish somehow some way I could get through to the general party members to step away from the kool aid and take a drink of fresh water and see what that tastes like. I know the paid party members, die hards, and the people that support them to receive the pork benefits would not step away, but it is the thousands if not millions of voters referred to as the rank and file of each party that I would want to taste the water. I wish I could find a way to walk them out of the box built up by generations to see that their interests are not aligned with what their parties are doing.  

The TEA party members did try, but they have been blinded (like everyone else) for so long and led astray to their principles that they were ready for anyone to take them by the hand and lead them somewhere else. And when you are already right wing it doesn’t take much to be led in a hard right direction when the blinders are never removed. So even though they are headed away from the box they are not being led in a direction that will ultimately benefit them.

A bit of tax policy to benefit the middle class and the whole of the economy

Some much of what our government does as public policy tries to create short term fixes for problems or panders to special interests. Using policy to affect positive behavior to benefit the country really is what our government should do.

Our two major parties also play a hand in policy that is not forward thinking because they are stuck in ideological ruts.

Democrats (mainly) try to solve problems by creating programs and agencies to address the issue. This is partly why our government is so large. Many of these agencies become institutionalized and instead of solving the original problem they look to expand their scope for their own survival. And on top of that new agencies and departments come along that tackle something similar since the original problem was never resolved. Now we have redundancy.

Republicans ideologically say we need to let the markets be the driver of success in our country. If we let the people who are business leaders lead our country then everything else will fall into place, hence the now infamous trickle-down theory. First the markets, read business leaders, will never do what is in the best interest of the country. This goes against their own survival. Second this really isn’t public policy since public policy is to manage competing interests to find the best overall solution for the country going forward.

And these are just some of the reasons I continue to blog that the two major parties are failing our country so much so that in 2012 I wrote a platform for my fictitious revival of a previous party in our past. I am going to touch on some of my previous ideas with a bit of an update on one aspect of how we can make a positive move forward economically with some temporary changes in tax policy.

Basically our economy needs major overhaul. I do not think trickle down or whatever version of that the Establishment Republicans are espousing nowadays will work. I haven’t seen anything from Ms. Clinton except campaign slogans and Mr. Sanders is going to try and use the government to solve problems that any government can never solve.  At least he is actually trying to create something. I feel they are highly ineffective, but he is trying so he is gaining popularity with some youth.

What I propose though is changes that can be instituted, but as things progress can evolve. The issue I want to move forward is reestablishing a stronger middle class and re investment back into our country. These changes by themselves are not enough, but they can show you, the reader, it is possible to put together policy that if properly acted upon will have a positive effect.

First we need to lower capital gains taxes on long term investments and raise them significantly on short term trading profits and activity. And when I mean raise I am talking about 90% for certain types of short term trading.

And there is some detail to this such as individual investors would get the greatest benefit for long term capital gains almost to the point if held for a certain time like years the tax rate would be nominally zero or close. The next group that would see benefits from long term trading or sometimes known as buy and hold trading would be mutual funds. For many years mutual funds when managed well are a great way for people in the middle class to save long term. Not too many people can spend the time researching companies to make long term stock decisions except for professional money managers. They would not receive the same benefits as the individual investor, but see significant reductions to encourage their long term planning.

The first goal here is to get people to reinvest in companies that reinvest back in our country. Long term investing strategy means investing in companies that have long term growth prospects. If companies know their stock price is not going to be based on one quarter’s profit/loss then they can invest more in their future to adapt to changing markets and new products. Well managed companies can grow. This type of investing leads to job and wage growth for workers.

The second half of the equation is to significantly raise taxes on short term trading. The philosophy behind this is to get Wall Street to go back to being investment bankers and planning for the long term.  There is a culture of billionaires making more money for themselves that has no benefit to anyone or anything else. Money is invested with the sole purpose of enlarging balances, not earning money.  The Sanders philosophy is we need to go after Wall Street. We do not need to attack Wall Street, we need to move them into activity that benefits the whole of our country and economy. The last thirty years of ever increasing trade activity for the sheer goal of extravagance for a few set individuals is exponentially more dangerous to our economy than people want to admit. Well people not in the Sanders camp.

We cannot as a society force wealth redistribution; that does not create jobs or grow our economy. We can reward positive and punish negative behavior as part of public policy. Our criminal justice system is one example of punishing negative behavior. The government has no right to tell people what to do, but it can set policy that benefits the greater good. Basically the same billionaires have to change their investment behavior, no one is saying they still can’t make billions. To grow economically, someone needs to grow it. They change is they won’t be pulling money out of real capital investments to manipulate markets for their own good. If they want to continue to make money, they have to make money for everyone.

And this is a temporary tax law. Tax law is one of the few policy opportunities a government has in changing large scale behavior. And of course it needs to benefit the country as a whole or it can be very destructive. And it is easier to change tax law than to rid our government of oversized bureaucracies. For example changing behavior means the SEC is reduced or at least focuses on the basics of investing and regulation from its original intent. It can spend more time on investment fraud, insider trading, and making sure new issues are introduced to the markets correctly. We do not need to add a whole new set of responsibilities or whatever Mr. Sanders may add to it or have another department added to reform Wall Street.

This is just one idea to a much larger puzzle of improving the economy for all of us. Some other aspects of this potential tax change are giving tax breaks to corporations for improving exports and new technology development. Ford and GM selling more electric cars to us and places like South America and India is a boast to our economy so their tax rates on the income from these changes reflect this benefit. This is companies moving forward in the world economy, yet making their growth come from inside the country. This is different from the Republicans saying give breaks now expect results later. You hold the reductions till the growth is realized. They may argue they have no incentive to invest, but if they say that they shouldn’t be in business in the first place. The goal of a successful business is to make a product, sell it, and evolve. Tax breaks create extra rewards for the hard work.  And if it generates an improved economy for the whole, then the need for large scale welfare and other social programs is reduced, plus there are more people paying taxes so a reduction, credit etc is an acceptable way for public policy to evolve and this reduces the overall size of government which reduces the need for taxes from everyone.

This is not a stop gap measure, it has to be calculated and flexible. At some point we could lower short term rates once overall changes are made. And nothing is ever perfect, there will be events forcing short term adjustments in the policy, but if you make long term planning the first step, it is easier to react to short term issues.

Some food for thought as we head into this wild and crazy political season that is now upon us. 

some random comments

I was going to say Donald Trump's new ad sounds like a greatest hit collection, but Vox.com beat me to it.

I am not a fan of Cruz, but his latest ad does make an interesting point.

I have tried to stay away from the immigration issue because I haven't thought of a possible solution and I am not a fan of either extreme of either banning completely to legalizing all here. There is a solution, but no one seems to have figured it out or at least one I may like. It is an issue we need long term solutions.

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The Mavs are confusing. Hope they figure themselves out soon.

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There will be no eulogy on the Cowboy season except to say I got a t shirt for Christmas that says Jerry causes me to drink. Now it is the whole organization.

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Christmas season ends tomorrow. Merry 11th day of Christmas

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And the Huffington Post is just as bad as Fox when it comes to partitionship.

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And we certainly need to stay away from anymore Sunni Shi ite explosions. Time we sid some real hard discussion on what should be U.S. interest in the Middle East. You would think after decades of dealing with the Middle East we would have learned something by now.

Maybe if we put oil in perspective things might become clearer for us. Energy independence shouldn't be a pipe dream.