The irony of Republicans, Social Security and AI

 

We all know Social Security needs major overhaul to be a valid resource for retired Americans going forward. It is an ongoing headline in the news.

Republicans tend to suggest one solution or part of the solution is to raise the retirement age.

Nowadays people worry about job reductions overall in society due to AI replacing so many workers.

So shouldn’t we look at lowering the retirement age.

Why?

This allows gainful employment for workers in the prime years and protects the job market from being over saturated with the reduction in the labor force due to AI.

 

And how? And this how is just another reason our societal mindset needs to change. This isn’t socialism or just tax the rich to tax the rich, but to level out the long term playing field and allow people who create jobs etc to continue to do so, while allowing our society to continue to prosper overall and have even just a basic quality of life.

First and it is just a reality corporations and businesses need to accept. Wages need to increase. If people are making billions on top of billions the workers wages can increase. It is just common sense for a better society.

Second the social security top tax limits need to be eliminated and all tax brackets need to have social security contributions. You can say after a certain level you start reducing the rate or percentage being used. For example raise the full taxable limit to $250,000 or $300,000. ( and depending on a few factors we may not increase the employer’s responsibility past a certain amount or eliminate it entirely for small and mid size businesses, but then you are getting into how do you determine small and mid size companies,  something to be worked out in the details) I stole some of this idea from a letter to an editor and that person said regressive tax. I am not sure if that is the right definition yet generally you lower the percentage withdrawn up to a certain income level. So by let’s say $750,000 or $1,000,000 the percentage withdrawn is 1 or 2% and then is zero above that. Again the exact figures get worked out in the details.

Third you lower the potential age you can start taking social security. If people have done well and they want to do something different in life or even start their own business they would be young enough say 60 to start receiving benefits. You could keep the benefit amount on a similar sliding scale where you start at 60 with a percentage of full benefits then at a later age you receive your full benefits. And we even lower this to 65 maybe. And possibly if more are paying in, benefits might increase also. Again this is worked out in the details.

The biggest issue that needs addressing is most people that rely on social security are in service industry jobs or similar which historically have been on the low end of the totem pole. This is why the overall corporate pay rate needs to increase. More people paid higher allows them to save more, allows them to have more flexibility in their retirement and both the higher wage earners and corporations contribute to the overall health of society by allowing lower wage workers a basic decent end of their life opportunity. This is not socialism. This is society overall respecting the dignity of life.

The goal is not to say we cannot have rich people or AI, but to shift some of the responsibility of protecting their workers onto them and not just on the government protecting a workforce that is stretched to their limits under paid with no quality of life. Even rich people like going out to eat or whatever. They just need to respect the people that are there serving them and not treat them as serfs.

Or the people with excessive billions can be hated and eventually pitchfork economics come into play and that doesn’t do anyone any good.

 

And yes this is I don’t know how many ideas or variations of a theme (including my last post) I have to actually make social security work now and in the future.

Cheers

Creativity is good even in public policy

 

As you know I complain much about the fact Republicans and Democrats never really have any answers and no longer solve our nation’s problems. And if you read this blog regularly you know occasionally I make stabs at trying to come up with new ideas for public policy.

And today I read an article that is a letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times that is an idea to help Social Security long term.

This to me shows that people do care and are thinking more than our Congress. And improving Social Security should be a priority for our Congress. Social Security is a monstrosity when it comes to projecting out numbers, yet the idea in the article is creative and looks implementable. It is not a stretch to understand. The real trick would be to apply it going forward in some mock ups and if viable it should be considered by Congress.

And if it doesn’t completely address the revenue problem but is close we should then look at other options to enhance.  All in all there are answers out there, it is just a shame the people who are paid to represent us, cannot even begin to solve the problems facing our country.

And for your benefit here is a quick recap. The author of the letter called it a regressive tax, personally I am not sure the verbiage works, but here goes.

The author suggests instead of eliminating the cap on taxing wages for social security, create the regressive tax where the first $200,000 is taxed at 6% (currently at 6.2 for first 184,000) then drop to 5% for 200k to 300k, 4 for the next hundred thousand until you get to $600,000 and is one percent for everyone above this threshold. Again this is a quick recap so I hope I spelled it out correctly. The author states this could be palatable politically and I tend to agree and I guess obviously since I am posting it. 😊

I always say center right ideas work the best and probably are the best answers politically. I hope this spurs some creativity or an open mind on your part to think of bettering this idea if needed or for other issues facing our country.

And let’s thank the author for thinking of rational solutions to our country’s issues. Unfortunately our current government isn’t doing it.

So again I say we need new parties and new leadership and answers like this show why.

 

Cheers

The reflecting pool is now the mirror of how bad things are to come

 

I have posted previously on this topic, yet as time marches on the disaster waiting is getting worse.

We all know it, it is staring even his supporters in the face, yet what happens after Trump passes away is potentially getting uglier by the day. Months ago I suggested the Republicans start planning for a Trump world. Then later on I was a bit more direct of what the Republicans will be facing once Trump is gone. Now it is beyond the planning phase time frame and what is looming for this country is flat out insane.

The power play after Trump will wreck havoc on this country. We have all heard the phrase power does not exist in a vacuum or something to that nature. Also today I was overhearing a podcast from a historian named Heather Richardson I think talking about there is a power shuffle or loose power structure going on in the administration right now. Not exactly sure since I was overhearing and not paying complete attention. Yet her point seemed to be that behind the scenes people are starting to position themselves for what happens after Trump. Some names she mentioned that might be jockeying around were JD Vance and maybe Tucker Carlson, but she also mentioned Carlson may be backing Vance.

The real issue is most of his cabinet and sycophants rely on Trump for power. They need him more for their future than their own careers will allow them to be successful. And there isn’t much cohesiveness amongst the group either. If and when Vance becomes President, how much of Trump’s cabinet and staff will he keep. And what happens when the infighting begins as they desperately cling to power.

Also Trump’s supporters will allow people to tell them it isn’t Trump that was a failure, but all these cabinet and staff members that let him down which will include Vance. People like Andrew Vought and Steven Miller may be the first to go, but also the most dangerous as the go out. Especially Vought because he probably has the most cohesive plan working, yet needs Trump to continue it. Well, honestly I am going to leave that sentence out there, but I do not know if Vance and Vought are on the same page. Vance may keep him since he does have a working plan. Miller not so much and offers no real advantage to Vance and whatever he may want to do once he becomes President. Personally though I would love to see both go since for different reasons, they are both dangerous to our democracy.

There are a plethora of cabinet members though that need to go and how attached to any of them is Vance. I don’t think much, yet they may do some crazy things (not that they aren’t already) on the way out the door. Most of Trump’s cabinet since there for loyalty reasons to Trump won’t offer much for Vance and easily are a hindrance if not an outright disaster ongoing for him.

Vance becomes President by default if Trump passes away before 2028. Yet every problem that Trump created will fall onto Vance’s lap. It could end up being the worst thing that could happen to any one person. And the problems are only getting worse even if oil and gas prices come down a bit in the short term. Iran already thinks he is a joke and will probably shut the Strait of Hormuz down or slap ridiculously high tolls on certain countries daring him to do something about it. Trump’s tariffs still cause headaches for our trade partners and they won’t want to jump on board to save him. He will have to repair NATO and trade alliances with people who will not trust him one bit, nor respect him.

So Vance will become impotent from day one, he will have cabinet members trying to hold onto their jobs either with outlandish actions or accusations, and a country that never wanted him in the first place. Why this isn’t major fodder for the talking heads world astounds me.

The post Trump world is going to be a nightmare and now that there are temporarily some Senators acting tough may not be enough to settle the power structure down in D. C.

Add the rise of socialist democrats in very democratic cities, you can see major jockeying of partisan madness as both sides get dirtier and dirtier with their hate and finger pointing. I know these same socialist democrats think they have tons of momentum going their way, but it will hit a major wall outside their specific regions. They think their ideas will take hold because of how bad Trump has been, yet to this day they do not see the fact that people wanted Trump to succeed because of what he says were his policies. Those policy wishes do not change just because Trump passes away. And of course there is the far right that is more emboldened and just hates everybody (including themselves) so they aren’t going away. The possibility of political outbreaks throughout the country exists if someone doesn’t grab the national attention quickly and offers some policy that tampers down inflation and more importantly the political rhetoric. It won’t all go away, but if we get lucky and someone can grab the middle’s attention and support, it might be less of a rocky ride.

Yet there is no one currently in any spotlight that offers us a chance to settle down the partisan hate without the ugly happening first. Our country as a whole can look much worse than a green reflecting pool very fast. The good news is and I think Ms. Richardson also brought this up is that most people in this country still like our country and what we represent. What we need is for a very dynamic person to rise to the top with practical ideas that people see as possible. Sounds fairy tale like, but we are almost to that point. Most people ignore the far right so they very rarely gain much traction with the body politic of this country, yet the far left does garner some waves of momentum occasionally and that is more dangerous than the middle realizes. Right now too much socialism is not the answer even though to rebuild our way of life some socialistic type ideas will need some attention. A delicate balance to say the least but yo yoing from one extreme (Trump’s right wing bigotry and authoritarianism) to the other extreme is not the answer no matter how often the left is going to cheer it on since people like Mamdani are capturing some major attention with some success in New York. Yet what works for New York isn’t going to fly in quite a few other cities and states. Just the nature of the political beast in a large and diverse, in more ways than one, country.

This large and beautiful country with the infamous melting pot we so love to tout works best when there is local politicians having some control over their respective areas, along with a national government that tries to create basic baselines of federal oversight and balance that gives equal benefit throughout the country. With the rise of the one percent, that hasn’t been the case in decades and people do feel it. We just hope that the center line is strengthened going forward and the wealth divide crumbles in a positive way so the majority have the opportunity we always say we have.

Yet to even get there we will face the ugly algae of Trump’ reflecting pool running rampant throughout D. C. for possibly years. A sad and true reality we face.

I was going to stop, yet I remembered one hope is that we get a new Speaker of the House that people respect asap and is open to busting open some of Trump’s political wins to bring back some leverage for the middle class.

It is way past time the Republicans ditched Mike Johnson as Speaker (and some other observations)

 

He has failed in so many ways. He fails as the Speaker in general. He fails as the Republican Speaker. He fails the Republican Party. He fails the people of this country. He fails Donald Trump and what is weird Trump and the people have completely different interests that are diametrically opposed yet he has managed to fail both of them. He fails himself. He fails his constituents specifically.

It is pathetic to watch this man on the news. He fails at lying. He fails at even trying to explain the madness he is wanting us to believe.

Time for the Republicans to realize surviving the midterms or not, Mike Johnson needs to be removed in any aspect of leadership in the House of Representatives. The sooner the better.

 

And I do not take credit for this observation, but I wish I said it. Scott Bessent looks like the ventriloquist dummy in a grade b horror movie about a ventriloquist. And Kevin Hassett could either be the dummy or the ventriloquist. Both those guys scare the crap out of me and not because they look dangerous. They just look creepy. Them being Trump sycophants is another reason they scare me because they throw some much BS out there it is maddening to realize they will say anything to make Trump look good. They go on talk shows, interviews etc and sit there with a straight face and bold face tell you not to believe what is going on in your life. And worse Mr. Hasset just smiles at you while doing it.

 

And finally I wish the media quits talking about the price of gas as it is the one and only problem average Americans are facing. The price of gas is eventually going to drive up costs across the board. Some economists debate the different types of inflation measures we should use. Well they are all about to climb into the danger zone for us. To say we need to exclude volatile items out of the measure, is just a shell game in the current situation. If truly there was an accident in the Strait of Hormuz or something similar then I could agree the price of oil and gas could be discounted in inflation measures because those prices would fall once things were cleared up. This war though is an insult to all of us. Mr. Trump cannot negotiate away the problem Netanyahu and he created and Iran is emboldened to make lives hell for half the world just to spite Trump and Netanyahu. The people of Iran are suffering immensely. The leadership is loving this moment.

Some tariffs are still around in some shape form or another which is another behind the scene problem right now. And on top of everything beef is about to get way more expensive if this screw worm situation grows. Sure beef is only one item, but once it gets expensive then chicken and pork will see more demand which will drive up their prices. The price of groceries before now is not talked about enough, next month between higher prices, tariffs and now beef, people aren’t going to want to celebrate the Fourth of July. This should have been a wonderful moment in our country’s history, instead our current leadership at all levels of government have destroyed any idea of celebrating or even reflecting positively on our country.

So going back to the original part of the post, Mike Johnson needs to go so we can get a Speaker that starts thinking about how to help Americans deal with the real inflation facing us, not to mention the ongoing healthcare debacle, arresting the corrupt leaders and more. And I am not holding my breath for Democrats to actually do something except lecture MAGA, which goes over so well.

People are still ignoring a post Trump world

 

A few months ago I wrote a post about what happens after Trump passes away. Since then the economic, political and geopolitical landscape began to fall off a cliff.

There needs to be some kind of come to reckoning about what we do as a country once mother nature takes over. He is not young and contrary to White House nonsense, he is not healthy.

And once he passes here is the short list of problems, if things stand as they do, Vance faces:

Iran war: Trump has put us in a precarious situation as it is and once he passes we have no real strategy. Not an iota of one to start negotiating. Vance has different viewpoints than Trump also. And then there is Hegseth, what might he do in the immediate aftermath. Will anyone in the Pentagon step and in and try to manage the war? Iran may be just sitting back and waiting for this moment because they could come out of this real strong due to Trump’s lack of vision and Vance’s ideology of no foreign wars. The Strait of Hormuz will be under their control for decades possibly. The whole war is a disaster to begin with and Trump passing will force , to even have a chance of salvaging anything, into a very forceful stance. And yes what does that exactly mean? The repercussions of this war are an immediate and long term disaster.

Economy: First the war has driven up the price of oil, gas and food worldwide. Vance may do something stupid to try and resolve the war to get shipping through the Strait of Hormuz so he can hold on to any inkling of a presidential bid. We are about to lose on three or four fronts economically on the world stage and only very stringent matters will let us hold on to some semblance of respectability. China is loving this and my bets are on they loved having Trump over to gauge his health to see how fast they can move on Taiwan, world trade and more.

Putin and Europe: Putin is getting desperate and in a bid to save his Presidency he may take even more action in Europe while we are dealing with Trump’s death. No one in Trump’s administration has the cajones to do something about him or will care. Europe will be hung out to dry and either get mired in a slow moving WWI scenario or come out with a quick victory and manages to save their identity. Unfortunately not their economy unless their victory is complete and they can open their doors to a new Russia so new trade with Russian oil and gets off the Middle East pipeline. If Europe survives Putin and a more open Russia emerges then that is good for Europe, yet all countries not named Iran in the middle east will suffer a setback as they lose customers for their oil.  Iran will still be the main supplier of oil to China and will be openly competing for other Asian markets. This can only embolden Iran and with us out of the picture some of the other Middle Eastern countries are in trouble.

Israel: Just saying the name almost says enough. Once Trump is gone, what is Netanyahu’s fate? What is Israel’s fate? Does Iran rebound enough to repress their surrogates attacking Israel? Will we even respond? Could we respond?

Japan and Korea: Not as dramatic as Israel, yet they are both facing what will be a very emboldened North Korea.

Domestic political turmoil: Who survives Trump? Are there real Trump allies willing to create violence in America for their benefit?  Who fights them? Then there is the duopoly’s lack of vision for a post Trump world. Neither side is ready with a plan going forward to address the above listed issues or even the most basic of issues like restoring law and order, punishing the grift and fraud, actually passing a domestic budget and whatever else may come up. We still need healthcare costs addressed, social security improved, better education, the infamous infrastructure addressed, homelessness, food security, small and mid size businesses helped, tax reform, campaign finance reform and imagine the financial markets in the immediate aftermath. Who does what? Does the market crash?

In my original post I just talked about the very basics. Since then, I have only seen one or two articles maybe talking about a post Trump world. We were unprepared then and Trump has only made things worse. The possibility is there for complete domestic upheaval and no one in this country has the political clout to pull together enough of a coalition to maintain some stability.

And this could happen at any moment. Am I doom speaking? Yes a bit. Could more practical heads manage to salvage the aftermath? Yes, but we need to start planning now to help that become a reality.

And the duopoly is not ready. Too many Republicans have succumbed to Trump’s influence over the party to even begin to think, much less act productively. Their desire for power has rendered them incapable of governing responsibly. The Democrats are clueless. Sure they talk pretty words, have wonderful platitudes, shout to high heaven about the evils facing us, without even knowing the true depth of those evils and then more down to earth, have no real plan. They think they do, they talk like it, but really pull back the curtain and again it is high minded words and platitudes. And the current Youtube and other blogs from the ideological spectrum only add to the partisan madness. They are not independent. They are noise. They complain about the other side or just make stuff up for an audience. So many pro and con to Trump are so tied to him that what do they do afterwards? 

I have tried throwing out ideas to take better paths historically in this blog. Yet some of them are very grandiose. Yet who knows maybe some large projects may help bring us together as a country. If we all started working on the same goals instead of pointing fingers at each other we may live on. For now though, natural disasters and more are going to test us each and every time. And slowly due to Trump’s rot on our infrastructure, it will catch up to us.

Hopefully my pessimism is misguided and we drudge our way through and come out on the other side with some semblance of our country. It looks bleak to me, yet though I still have hope. If saner heads on either or both parties or my dream of more independents and third parties come to fruition then we can rebuild this great country because more often than not, if a people survive a calamity they usually build something better. Or let’s hope so.

Cheers

I know it is Sunday and we shouldn’t be negative, yet it needs to be said. And yes I don’t like name calling, but there is no other way to say it. People need to hear it whether they like it or not.

 If you do not like to travel, you are an idiot.

 

It doesn’t matter what you like, go see it, go visit it, go do it. Our life on planet earth is too short not to digest as much of it as you can. God created a beautiful planet and mankind has added some wonderful things too.

 

And yes I know we should put the beauty of the Creator first, but honestly I don’t think God minds if you explore what he gave us.

And I hate it that for too many they consider travel a luxury. And that is a shame. Obviously travel is not a “right” but it should be available and affordable to the masses. There is a whole host of political problems that is preventing people from traveling, so we need to find a way to balance this, yet for now, people need to find a way.

Travel is education, relaxation, awe inspiring, socializing, meeting new people, see different cultures, new food, new sights, new activities, new scenery, new tastes, new excitement and more. If some of that seems redundant, it is not. Sights and scenery can be different completely and need to be experienced to be understood.

And yes travel to do what hobbies or interests or whatever you like. Go fishing, yet fish in many rivers and lakes, same as for camping, go to different campsites. If you like mountains, go see many. In North American alone you definitely have years of travel plans to make with all our mountain ranges from Canada to Mexico from the Pacific to the Atlantic. If you love adventure, you can never do it all. If you love water parks and amusement parks, go wild. You cannot even begin to see enough beaches. And if you are the person that says, well all that looks the same. You aren’t traveling, you are going through the motions. Stop, look listen smell taste and breath it all in. You will see and enjoy the differences. And while you do what you like do something different also along the way. If you enjoy camping, go to a museum every now and then. If you love museums go fishing every now and then. There are a million ways you can mix it up.

So go!

I love beaches, cannot get enough of them, but not one beach looked like another. Not one wave I jumped over was the same as the one behind it because I experienced it. The morning walks through the shallow surf always brings a moment of joy and peace. I saw wide sandy beaches, beaches with rock formations, small beaches, tourist trap beaches, beaches with large waves and others with small waves, white sand, black rocks, beaches with steep drop offs or some you can walk out way too far and there is more to see. I love listening to the waves after dark, what a great way to go to sleep. And I have seen much more than beaches.

I implore you to travel. I wish I say could the right dynamic words to make you drop what you are doing and go right now.

I love getting in the car and going. Summer family vacations were something I thank God I gave our kids. We drove. We flew. We went. You should too. And to this day the better half and I do not feel fulfilled unless we travel at least once a year. We can be broke and make bad financial decisions and still go. Yes, honestly we go no matter what our financial situation. And we have paid for it in more ways than one afterwards. We don’t regret it.

And times we have gone with enough financial security that every moment was pure exhilaration, pure fun, pure enjoyment, pure relaxation or whatever else may have been the reason for going.

With all the hate and madness in our daily news lives and political shenanigans going on, you need to do something that brings you happiness and joy.  And looking at all the pretty pictures on your computer is not traveling. You need to go. I always rant and rave about how we can do better, yet today I rant and rave to try and convince you to do something better for yourself. Please do.

Cheers

It is going to get ugly. It is going to get stupid. And it is going to be beyond expensive.

 

And I bet some of you know up front what I am talking about here.

 

Yes the Senate race in Texas will show us just how bad our politics have become. I know some Democrats will say we have nominated a worthwhile person. And maybe so, yet have you seen him. He is about to be taken apart by one of the ugliest politicians around. Not ugly in looks, (well) but ugly in human values. And the entire MAGA wing of the Republican party and possibly some other Republicans are going to spend the next few months denigrating Talarico beyond belief.

Why? Well first they don’t have any public policy to mention or tout. They just don’t have squat. There only hope is Trump steals the election. Second they have the mentality of childish bullies.  I could say middle school bullies, but they don’t rise to that level. Absolutely nothing to do, but make fun of someone because they are weaker than diarrhea. They talk tough, but honestly they all go crying to the world every time someone calls them out. The entire Trump and crony playbook is name calling. That is it.

The other issue is Talarico is a Democrat and I am gathering somewhat of a very liberal Democrat. This is Texas. That won’t fly well with many swing voters because most of them spend the day trying to decide which conservative they like better and liberal policies will get them to close their ears faster than aforementioned diarrhea goes through your system.

Talarico cannot sit idly by and let the insults fly. He will be forced to fight which will be better for him than trying to sell his policy ideas in Texas, yet once he goes low, the spiral to the bottom is just unstoppable.

So we here in Texas are about to get hundreds of millions of dollars (I wonder a billion?) of political ads where one guy will stubbornly try to take the high road and the other will keep going lower hoping to keep Donnie boy interested in him. The end result will be brutal no matter who wins. Politics in this country are already bad enough, partisanship bleeds our sanity out and this race will become the epitome of campaign and political failure.

I just hope for some strange and mad reason everyone in Texas wakes up and votes entirely third party. Unfortunately the party I like doesn’t have a candidate. I hate not voting so I will probably vote for who knows who right now. I guess I have to wait and see what the ballot looks like. It is sad. Our once proud nation on its 250^th birthday has devolved so fast sane people cannot find a real choice.

And if you actually look at this election and what it will become, you will get an idea of why I have been saying for 45 years we need new parties.