Some quick thoughts

So, the EPA wants to roll back some protections for waterways, including some that lead to sources for drinking water. The Republicans are working hard to remove Medicaid recipients over the next ten years. Is there a connection? Hmmm…. Poison people slowly then let them suffer with no way to seek health care. Yep that is one way to lower the need for government handouts.  Maybe not, that is pretty deplorable.

And quite frankly, I am not sure the Republicans can think that creatively.

Oh boy the Koch brothers do not want to give their money away if they cannot get their tax breaks from the health care reform.

And in the mode of being fair and unbiased, there was an article or an op-ed piece that says Nancy Pelosi was helping the Republicans to win. In a pretty straight forward way, I agree. The Democrats are clueless. They keep thinking they are going to win the mid-terms in 2018. I am wondering how.  One way might be to start campaigning on the notion to elect us and we will make Obamacare better instead of what the Republicans are doing.   And there are many other platforms they could jump on to attack what is going on in D. C.  oh,,,maybe they aren’t that creative either.

So, are the Rockets better with Chris Paul?   Personally, I think this is a weird pairing. And just exactly how did everyone know CP3 wanted to go to Houston so much so that the Clippers could get him to opt into his contract to make the trade. Hmmmmm…. Overall, I am curious as to what happens in Houston with this trade so I hope it goes through. And no, I am not a Rockets fan.

And is there really a Paul George trade in the next few days? Does he join a superteam? Does he create one by getting teams to work out deals? Cavaliers? Celtics? Lakers now? Exactly who is running the NBA? And maybe it is the players. Which is very good for some and not so good for many. Will we see true competitive basketball across the league in the next few years? Or just four teams that have the best talent for a few years and then when the luxury tax hits the team, players reform onto another team. Can young players develop in this environment? Either the NBA figures this out and the talent level spreads more equally or it could get ugly for too long.  And on a secondary note, if you want Carmelo Anthony to join your superteam, maybe he should take the pay cut now. Otherwise he will never get his ring. 

Two separate topics…...politics and basketball

Update to below. I started writing this last night before the results were in and didn’t get a chance to finish, yet I am not changing anything (even though it probably needs editing, but in a hurry last night and right now) since it is mainly about the Democrats and their failure to have a resonant message.

First, they voted in Georgia’s Congressional Special election today and the count is currently close. I have not followed real closely, however, from what I have heard they both tried to move to the middle a bit and avoided this being a referendum about Trump. Basically, this is what it used to be before let’s say 2008.

Anyway, I am not talking about the election, but why the Democrats can still drop off a cliff in 2018. I do not think they have learned their lessons yet. The National party has not developed a platform for 2018. And quite frankly they need one desperately. Hillary lost for two reasons, one no one likes her and two she really did not have a platform most of, many of Americans relate. She may have won the majority, only because her opponent was Donald Trump. And he won because enough people hate her, especially in the Midwest. And Mr. Trump put together what he touted to be a platform which in reality was just verbiage that spoke to many Americans. So much so, that enough voted for him even with all his shortcoming for him to win.

And this is where the Democrats are failing. They still do not have anything in place that speaks to most Americans. They are so busy speaking to their base and trying to cobble together enough individual groups to form a majority they have no idea of the electorate they are alienating. Trump can win again because the Democrats have no idea why people voted for him.

Most Americans just aren’t as socially liberal as the Democrats keep trying to make us believe. You cannot force change. I always say the best way to move the needle forward in any endeavor is to educate people so they know why your idea(s) work or are better.  So, you would think education would be at the forefront of their agenda. So, I ask you dear reader, have you heard anything from them on this topic. Yet they keep expecting us to follow along, like little ducklings because the elite of the party knows what is best for the country. I have said this a hundred times, either in the blog or on other posts, people do not like being talked down to. They want respect. People work hard for what they have and to be told they do not know what they are doing is political suicide.

I am going to address two issues that for die hard democrats or maybe more so for the party elite are deal breakers, yet these are examples of deal breakers for them.

One is the bathroom issues for transgenders. Democrats are trying to push this issue hard as part of their cobbling together various interests to form a majority. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are not comfortable with these bills. They may not come out and be vocal critics, yet they are uncomfortable. It doesn’t matter what ethnicity or race, or even if religious. People are uncomfortable with the topic. Some democrats go along, but still are quietly worried. One example of the worry; I am a Father of daughters and Grandfather of granddaughters. I am not comfortable with the idea of men no matter their feelings about who they are, going into a public bathroom with my young female family members. And you may say that is you, if so, you aren’t paying attention. Sorry there are too many psychopaths running around for me to give blanket permission for men in women’s bathrooms. Or you may say you are missing the point, that is not what these bills are about. Well, goes back to the way I feel, not the way the bill reads.  And Democrats don’t see this, they prefer to force my social liberal way instead of realizing the country just isn’t as far along in this path as they think they are.

Or illegal immigration. Now is what Trump wants the right thing to do. No, yet he is onto something. People are upset about illegal immigration. I read an op-ed today and the writer had the right idea and used facts to back his points. Most polls, and again ethnicity and race don’t affect the results, show people do not support illegal immigration. This isn’t a bunch of white trash trolls yelling at the TV set. This is the majority of Americans. Democrats could take this issue away from Trump in a heartbeat by coming up with a real plan for immigration reform. He has no plan, just verbiage and an executive order he is touting as action.  People want some action on this issue that says, hey this is my country, can you do something about this. Now, can we come up with a rational sensible policy to address this issue? We can, however, neither party is trying. Trump is noise and Democrats are headed off into a direction that makes no sense and politically ignorant.

Let’s talk NBA and well Mavericks.

I would say it is a foregone conclusion the Mavericks are going to take Frank Ntilikina. I would say that; however, nothing is a foregone conclusion. Maybe inevitable, yet even that doesn’t work. And if the Mavs take him I am working on nicknames, so how about French Frank or F squared or Fryman since you know French Fries.   Yep, they suck

The Mavs have shown great interest in him.  And the Knicks some interest and they pick ahead of the Mavs so who knows.

The draft is less than 36 hours away, however, the landscape of the NBA has changed dramatically over the last 36 hours and the potential for more to come is still great.  The big news as you know comes from Boston and Philly flipping picks, plus other pieces; and the Lakers trading with Nets, which is a net gain for L. A. and a net loss for Brooklyn. Why would they even make that deal? Maybe I should apply for the GM job in Brooklyn, I could do worse, but I would have to be really trying.

Speaking of the Knicks, will they really trade KP, and take LM? I am not looking them up just for the spelling. I think you know who I mean. Someone other than the Knicks could become very fortunate. Why is it players that are proven aren’t worth more than draft picks?

Dwight Howard’s life just turned upside down. It would show him to be a real stand-up guy though if he plays well next year or at least gave the Hornets his all.

And back to Mavs, sort of. DeAndre Jordan may be on the trade block because, well Blake and or CP3 may be leaving. Wasn’t it Blake specifically that barred the door at Mom’s house when Jordan may have gone to the Mavericks. How does Mr. Jordan feel right now? And if Blake heads somewhere else in free agency, where does he go? Or Chris? And if Chris goes to New Orleans does Anthony Davis stay? Or does Ainge find a way to wrangle him to Boston?

I am not sure if the next 48 hours then free agency can top the past 36 hours, yet the potential is there.

Maybe it is time for Joy

I originally had the idea for this post early morning a few days ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t write it then because of the shooting of the Congressman and others. So, I do want to wish everyone that was injured a speedy recovery and hope that whatever drew this person to commit this heinous act can be spoken about so this does not happen again. Everyone knows I am not a Trump supporter, yet we still need to deal with just the issues and lose the hatred that permeates in parts of our society now.

Back to the original idea. I always hope that I can find joy just in everyday living, yet there are times when having a significant amount of extra cash is wonderful. Sure, I want a nice car or house. Yet, what really drives my desire for extra money is traveling. The wonders of our world both manmade and natural everyone should be able to enjoy. One of the reasons I seem so dedicated to my political beliefs is that every human has the right to enjoy life. And yes, sometimes going out costs money. I do not think everyone wants to be rich, nor do I believe it is a right for wealth. It is a right to have the opportunity to be the best person you can and to be able to enjoy life to its fullest. Our Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution spell this out much better than I.

To achieve the best possibilities for ourselves, we must continue to strive to be better as individuals and as a society. And to experience joy, we need the opportunity to fulfill ourselves intellectually, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and with each other. When these opportunities are taken away from us, we lose as individuals and as a society.  Additionally, we can experience joy through living life and experiencing it at every opportunity. And that is one reason I like to travel. And not to mention eating tons of new food.

Traveling allows us to meet other people, learn about various cultures, and as mentioned just see and behold what exists on this planet. Not to travel is not to embrace our humanity. Or as a much better writer than myself once put it: “The World Is a Book and Those Who Do Not Travel Read Only One Page". And this quote is attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo who, if he made this quote, wrote this when most people didn’t have the opportunity to read as much as we do today. Interesting.

So, I hope to continue to write about better ideas for us politically to hopefully spur in us the need to make a better society. Maybe mine might work, maybe you will find better. Either way we must expend the effort to improve our education, improve the current national dialogue, close the wealth gap and many other endeavors so people have opportunity. Failure to continue to improve from generation to generation is, well…. just failure. 

And traveling gives joy. It expands our horizons. It brings us closer together. We should look at each other, square in the eye and see each other for the wonderful humans we are, faults and all. Nothing is ever perfect, yet not going out into the world deprives us of everything that has been given to us.  So, pick up your knapsack, backpack, suitcase, carry on, make up case, shopping bag, and yourself to head out into the world. If you go with an open mind, you will be rewarded beyond your belief.

Additionally, the better half and I experienced a wonderful moment and received a gift of a plane ride around Dallas recently. I included a couple of pictures to hopefully spur you to be a bit more adventurous.

Why not oil

Or really making America great

Real quick someone rephrased the MAGA phrase to Making America Greatly Ashamed on one of the storyboards the other day. Thought it was a bit creative.

So why oil or why not oil. As the regular readers know I am not a big fan of oil and for many reasons that are just as important as climate change. Yet let’s take a moment to discuss how we can reduce the use of oil in our world. Now the obvious is energy and using renewables and since that has been done by me and countless others I want to touch on some other aspects of how the oil industry impacts our world and what we can be done differently. And even more ironic is most of the industries existed before oil, can still be utilized; be much more beneficial; and improves our economy in the process.

I will agree that making the switch on some of these products means quite the effort, yet well worth it. And we do not want the government dictating how we should live so this is something society should buy into, but if done properly much can be gained. And the only real government intrusion would be tax incentives, local and national, and getting the private sector or at least some aspects of it to help start the investing or investments. I think there are starting to be some individualistic billionaires who might view some of the ideas as opportunities and help out.

I am going to break it down by industry and these are brief discussions. If you take on this task, then much more planning and detail would be needed.

The retail industry is struggling and so anything to help keep jobs and even bring back brick and mortar stores is a benefit. Remember when clothes were made from wool and cotton. Why did we stop? These fabrics are much more comfortable than polyester and other synthetic oil by product clothes, they are recyclable, and with planning can benefit the environment. And this can help local economies (remember I am big on closing the wealth divide) in a few ways. First cotton is an agriculture product that can be regrown year in and year out. Costs of clothing would tend to fluctuate with cotton prices, but overall, we increase agriculture development, we can employ people to create more clothes locally, and stores can even sell locally developed products like Farmer’s markets do. We could have similar stores based on what is manufactured. For certain areas, this creates or recreates an industry that once thrived, reduces our reliance on oil, and brings back some Mom and Pop type stores or industries. This is the simplistic version, yet if you step back and look at the dynamics of our country you can see how certain geographic areas thrive, which you balance out with developing other areas. And one way is of course raising sheep for wool. Same as above, however, wool products and clothing developed and you can trade both throughout the country depending on climate and season. Cotton and wool create better clothing that wears better and lasts longer. So why not.

Another industry that floundered with the oil industry is glass and we can also add aluminum to this discussion. Glass and aluminum are recyclable. Both create manufacturing and recycling jobs and these types of jobs are also better suited at more of a local level or at least regional level (such as large state or a combination of certain metropolitan areas). So instead of throwing away inordinate number of plastic bottles every year, we can go back to stressing these products which saves on the environment and helps to create local and regional employment.

For now, a couple of examples that does not affect us in our daily lives by switching over and offers or reoffers economic development on a broader scale.

We are accustomed to using oil by products in our everyday lives, yet over and over again it proves to be poisonous to us and our environment.

Other industries such as automobiles and energy will thrive without oil. We have the opportunity to show the world that oil is not the end all be all product we make it out. Other benefits of transitioning off oil: it helps with national security; reduces pollution; and because as time as gone on oil is one of the major drivers of creating the wealth divide since fewer and fewer people benefit from higher oil prices, we can offer other opportunities to more people. The oil companies, Wall Street traders; certain countries, that quite frankly do not have our best interests; all contribute to consolidating wealth for their benefit which does as much damage to the world as oil itself.

Hey, Reince Priebus I got a proposal for you

I hear the fake news saying you may be out of a job or some sort of shake up or you may be unhappy or all sorts of fake news stuff.

Well Mr. Priebus let me help you out. Why don’t you resign and give me your job? I can be completely compliant to Mr. Trump. Shoot I will just put up a sign on my office door that says, “the buck stops over there” with an arrow pointing to the Oval Office and call it a day. Shoot every now and then I get a hankering to learn how to play golf. I do not think anyone would mind. 

And on my off days I could continue this anonymous blog and write even more productive pieces on my ideas for better policy in government. No one down at your office would notice. I could even run them by the Congressional Budget Office and maybe work out some kinks in my thinking. Mr. Trump won’t care. He doesn’t pay attention to that office anyway.  I might hit on something that works. Who knows? I might be productive. Or actually get true conservative ideas and policy passed

It is the infamous win win for both of us. You get out of a dead-end job and maybe before it is too late get a waiver from Mr. Trump and lobby. And you might be able to salvage your life. I get a significant raise to better take care of my family and like I said above I might accidentally hit on real policy to actually keep America great once Mr. Trump is out of office.

And if the shit hits the fan, well I am long past trying to be popular so I can just turn State’s evidence from what I learn poking around the office, go into witness protection, move to Vegas, and actually try to finish the great American novel I keep stumbling around on. Maybe even learn to write a complete sentence or finish a sentence without a preposition.

Heck everyone knows you tried real hard to ride his coattails and be the one that rectified the candidate with the Republican Establishment to get that wish list of plutocratic policy initiatives passed. The good ole boys will give you a pass.

I suggest you think about this quickly. Your window of opportunity is passing fast. Soon people will see you as a failure and things won’t go well for you afterwards. Once Mr. Trump passes on you, all the contacts and connections you have spent a lifetime cultivating will disappear faster than Casper the friendly ghost.  I feel for you “dude”. A lifetime of work thrown out the window because you won’t let Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon run over you just like the rest of the country. Yep, having even just an ounce of integrity is not doing you one iota of good. Shame.

Well, let me know. You can comment on this post if you like or if you want to work out a deal where maybe you get a better lasting impression, email me. One of the few things I would do in your role is let anybody that asks know you did a fine job. 

A straw premise

Has the NBA attempt at creating team parody so all teams should have a chance at a championship really created player parody at a chance for a championship?

Players seem to be driving the league right now. And of course, you can start this argument with the Miami Heat of a few years ago.

So, what seems to have happened is a few players can now get together and form a team in the city they want or in Golden State’s case where it developed and add the pieces as need through free agency. GS got to add Durant in free agency because that is where he felt he had the best chance at a championship. Pretty obvious move by him.

The real parody for the players is the players who may have a few good years, earn some money then start becoming role players behind the superstars. Or a few may have not met on their original promise and talent and fall back to being role players and work themselves to a contender.

One empirical example of my thinking is that last year the Dallas Mavericks won one game in the playoffs and didn’t get past the first round. This year three players from that team are in the Championship series. Zaza and JaVale McGee are now with the Warriors and Deron Williams managed to be picked up by Cleveland in a salary cap dump by Dallas mid-season because LeBron had been harping about a contributor from the bench.

The players were available either because of discounts in free agency or when a team decided to go ahead and start transitioning to a new future (hopefully). This allows these players a chance to play for a championship that team parody hasn’t worked enough to allow at the team level.

Another example is David West first shopping himself to the Spurs last year then the Warriors this year.

As time goes forward without changes this may become the norm. Unfortunately, this is not good for the fans of teams in the NBA. If you are just a NBA fan, you still get potentially good championship series as different role players fill out the super teams and those role players may make the difference. The individual teams will struggle because the players will try and form the super teams so they can win the championship. Loyalty to teams is on the wane for many years in all sports; the developing NBA model is potentially putting the nail on the coffin going forward.

There are still teams that are works in progress that hopefully develop such as the Celtics, Timberwolves, Bucs, Portland trying, Utah, and a couple others that may bring back real parody. If they are successful, then more players may stay with their team and let management bring in the draft and free agents to make them contenders. Let us hope so. If not, then the better players from these teams will eventually move to the superstar teams as backups etc to obtain that coveted ring. If this becomes the norm, it will be harder for the NBA to sell itself to a larger fan base. Only fans of the players will have any loyalty going forward and that is way to fickle either through injuries or faded careers to build a business.

Well..uh… hmmm…maybe I am “just saying”

Already half the Dallas Mavericks are technically young enough to be Dirk’s children so if they draft the kid from France maybe Mark Cuban should just drop the name Dallas Mavericks and change it to Dirk and sons for the rest of his career…..just saying

Have you ever known a religion that has no faith in itself or its followers? Usually we call those groups cults. It is sad when members are discouraged from going to other family events if their religion is not involved or if the event goes against there thinking, yet really isn’t against their religion..yet there are religions who do this and are very large,,,,,how can people feel like their religion is worth something if they don’t trust you?.... just saying

Why is it every time Mr. Trump wants to deflect something he accuses others of what we might believe he is doing? All of a sudden there is a deep state conspiracy against him. If you ask me there is probably a deep state group trying to solidify itself to protect him and what he is doing, made up of alt right supporters and Russian business interests. You would think our people who swear to protect us and our Constitution would be aware of this and do something about this. You would think, yet….just thinking

Ladies please if you love breezy dresses on breezy summer days, you might want to hold your skirt when walking up steps in areas of strong up drafts…. It is a bit much to start to climb steps and your dress blows up and shows you are only wearing tights or hose that is sheer… and yes please notice when your dress is blowing around…… letting it fly up for more than an instant is a bit much….just saying