When Did Americans Stop Thinking?

Each day I see more evidence that we no longer think but instead memorize, copy and feel. I blame the problems not only on unthinking parents but also on our education system and our media. The examples abound.

Years ago someone decided that adjectives should be used as nouns and visa versa. So female officers were called women officers. But male officers were not called man officers. The same happened with doctors , lawyers etc. We all disregarded grammar and changed it.

Some people decided that a football team must change its name after 81 years because it was a negative term for American Indians. A poll of the affected group was conducted and 90% of those polled said that they didn't care.

Then some people decided that Americans of African descent who traced their American roots back hundreds of years must be called African-Americans. No one called Americans of European parents  European-Americans. This hyphenated name is reminiscent of what Jews were called. If they were of German birth and descent, they were called German-Hebrews or simply Jews. This was not meant as a compliment. Hyphonating a nationality diminishes the affected group. Then some people decided that American Indians were to be called Native Americans not realizing that everyone born in America is called a native American. The thought must have been that by changing these names the groups would be more likely to prosper. They were wrong.

Then after a crazy man killed nine churchgoers in South Carolina it was found that he had a picture of himself with a confederate flag, and it was decided that all such flags must be taken down. This led to some objecting to 100 year old statues of Southern Civil War leaders thinking that was hurtful to black Americans who were not getting over what happened 150 years ago. The Jews got over the Nazis and their genocide which happened 70 years ago, and still buy German cars like VW which was created by Hitler. Then it was decided that the statues must be torn down. This led to the notion that every American hero should no longer be honored if they had slaves or mistreated Indians. So George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson should no longer be honored with statues or places named after them. They wanted New York to have a name change because his namesake did thing we would not do today. All our currency should be changed removing these Americans who did things we no longer do. Some students at Princeton wanted President Wilson's name be removed because even though he was a liberal U.S. President and the father of what became the U.N. as well as having been president of Princeton. Some students wanted the name "dorm master" because it was a reminders of slaver owners. They did want the master's degree name changed nor the adjective denoting excellence altered.

Recently at the birthplace of free speech, U.C. Berkeley, students rioted to keep people from speaking because they disagreed with them. Berkeley administrators did nothing to stop the vandalism and rioting. The protestors were not ordered to actually hear the speeches, but they didn't want anyone else to.

The liberals rioted  protesting against fascist goups as well as the President. There signs said that love conquers hate and that we all must be tolerant. Then they showed hatred towards the labeled haters and were intolerant of those they thought were intolerant. Apparently they never saw or were shown the irony and hypocrisy of their actions. 

A group called Antifa because they were against fascism were themselves faschistic and only one politician, Nancy Pelosi pointed this out. The others were afraid to.

Recently the disabled came to protest a disgraceful attempt to change the Affordable Care Act which did need changes but not those in the new legislation. They shared with us their terrible health conditions saying they could die if these draconian changes went into effect. No one pointed out that those who were disabled were covered either by Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) if they worked long enough to qualify or the Supplemental Security Insurance if they didn't

or got too low an SSDI benefit. Those having the former, SSDI,  automatically got Medicare while those on SSI got Medicaid. This legislation would not change that. But still it was impressive seeing them there and hearing their sad stories. No one pointed this out to us.

In the past few years some black Americans were killed by police. In the most prominent ones grand juries or juries found the officers not guilty by reason of self defense. The first was in Ferguson where a 6 feet 5 inch recent high school football players was shot and killed as he advanced to kill the officer who was arresting him for strong arm robbery. The grand jury called all the witnesses and found that there were no hands up.  The U.S. Attorney General investigated and came up with the same finding. We began seeing athletes and liberal politicians putting their hands up not mindful that it never happened.

In Baltimore a young drug dealer resisted his 20th arrest of the year and in the process accidentally hit his head in the police van. He died several days later. Jury after jury found the officers not guilty. But we still had riots in the streets. In the next six weeks 56 people were murdered in Baltimore with 55 of them being black as were their assailants. The media never told us.

In Staten Island a morbidly obese 6 feet 5 inch man resisted his 30th arrest. He died of a heart attack. Some courageous basketball players came out with shirts saying "I can't breathe." when having a heart attack the feeling is that you can't get air.

But there were unlawful murders by police of black Americans. It happened in Chicago, Dallas, Buffalo and South Carolina. These officers lost their jobs and were prosecuted.

Recently a football player who had been benched for two seasons and realized his career and paychecks were over, would not stand for the flag or National Anthem. Soon other misguided souls joined him in civil disobedience. No one pointed out that nowhere in the world were blacks doing better. We have Americans of African descent who are billionaires, multimillionairs and millionaires including professional athletes than every other country combined. We elected a black president, the first one outside Africa. 

I blame our education system at least through high school that stresses memorization and sympathy instead of thinking after reviewing all the evidence. I blame our media for not pointing out these erroneous beliefs.

I blame parents who do not teach their children to think clearly, respect the law, and work hard to accomplish their goals.

It's not too late to change,but are we smart enough to realize that a change is needed? I hope so.

What do you think?

Where Socialism and Capitalism Co-Exist

Many in this country want socialism. The main proponent is Bernie Sanders. He proposed having a single payer system so that the government controls much of our economy. He also wants all state universities to be free. This seems appealing to some, especially those who do not have coverage now, don’t want to accrue college debt or aren’t seeing the inherent problems.

The pro-socialists point to the problems with capitalism. Capitalisam caused the crash of 2008, the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, the bottom 40% of our socio-economic Americans who can’t pay taxes and live in substandard conditions. Our black and Hispanic populations are disproportionally in this group. 

The socialist backers cite the Declaration of Independence which says “all men are created equal” something that the founding fathers never believed. They didn’t believe that blacks, American Indians and women were equal to white, Christian landowners. What they might have meant is all people are equally human. Still this group clings to this falsehood maintaining that if we were all equal, shouldn’t we all have equal living conditions. They oppose the theory of evolution which says that evolution relies on the survival of the fittest.

They don’t look at the failure of socialist countries. There is Cuba, North Korea, China , the USSR, East Germany, Venezuela as examples of the effect of socialism. They disregard the contrast between North Korea and South Korea or of East Germany versus West Germany or of Venezuela and Brazil.

Those who favor capitalism point to the need for competition to produce the best product for the lowest price. They believe that their system motivates people to do their best in order to succeed. They remind us that capitalism made our country the richest and most prosperus in the world. They believe in survival of the fittest. They overlook the dishonesty of our banks, the attempts at monopoly, and the massive gap between the richest and the poorest leading to violent crime. They disregard the difference in pay between men and women doing the same work. They do not shed a tear for those who are not successful and turn to crime and substance abuse.

So who’s right? What should we be, socialist or capitalist? I suggest a balance of both. The government can motivate companies to hire Americans by imposing taxes or tarrifs on products made by American companies overseas.

The country could make community colleges free so everyone desiring more that a high school education could get one for the first two years. Then those who cannot afford a four year college could get their remaining 60 units by using on-line education for less than $4,000 to get their college degree. 

The government can change the tax code eliminating all itemized deductions which overwhelmingly favor the rich. They could offer a standard deduction instead. They could tax those making more than one million a straight 35% , those making more than $5 million an extra 5% and those making more than $10 million an extra 10% or a total of 45%.

The government could take action on companies that pay women less than men for the same work. Government agencies already have this parity. 

Currently about three million Americans have healthcare coverage through their employers or from Medicare, Medicaid or VA. About 30 million lack this coverage. Some who have coverage have high deductibles or premiums. 

So there can be a balance between socialism and capitalism. Almost half of get their coverage because of capitalism and half from socialism.  But what about those who don’t have coverage or are paying too much or too high premiums? Should we all have socialised medicine? The Affordable Care Act tried to answer that question and failed. It failed because it tried to force Americans to sign up for the ACA or face penalties. It failed because it insisted that plans include everything, even if the applicant didn’t want or need some of the mandatory options. It failed because it didn’t realize that one unhealthy applicant could cost as much as hundreds of healthy ones. Five percent of the population spends 50% of the country’s health care costs. One prescription drug can cost $60,000 a year meaning just for the drug costs ten healthy people must pay for it. I have a health problerm for which I was billed more than $1.5 million this year. My health insuance paid all but a few hundred dollars that I was charged. How many healthy people paying $6,000  a year are needed just to pay for me, 250? What if there are 20 like me or 200? The other unforseen problem was that insurers dropped out because of huge losses even with billions in government subsidies. This left one in five people with only one company to select from, charging its captive audience more. A total of 19 states refused to expand Medicaid coverage leaving many of our neediest without coverage.

So how do we correct the problems created by capitalism without abandoning it?

The government can control the excesses of the bankiung system by enacting laws like the Glass-Seigal. It would make retail banks separate from investment ones. It could and does control monopolies. 

But what about health coverage? Should that be socialized so that everyone can have coverage? The top 60% would see their taxes increase dramatically and get no benefit from the plan, only the bottom 40% who pay no taxes now might see an improvement.

So how can health care coverage be both socialized and capitalistic?

Let companies and government agencies continue to offer their employees private health care coverage but with no deductibles. Make signing up for ACA voluntary and therefore without penalties which some call taxes. Let private insurers deny coverage to people with expensive medical problems. Those denied coverage would immediately be eligible to the “public option.” And let those whose states refused to offer expanded Medicaid elibility also get this option. It would be a federal program like Medicare not dependent on states to agree to it and it would have a shsare of cost depending on income. Let private and public insurers offer a less expensive plan that only covers needed hospitalization, presciption drugs, lab tests and doctors’ visits. 

Private ACA insurers would come back to the market and compete for the millions of healthy applicants. They would not have deductibles and would have a share of cost depending on incomes.

Therefore there would be both a socialist and capitalist solution. There would be maybe five million more people on the government program and few million more getting private insurance coverage.

Then everyone who wants healthcare coverage could get it at affordable prices.

But where the extra money come from under this arrangement?

The govenment would stop paying billions of dollars in subsidies to private insurers. Waste and fraud in health care amounting to more than $100 billion could be much more tightly controlled. Also money could come from the changes in the tax code mentioned above and by looking at other areas of wasted government  money. We could close many of our 800 foreign military bases or have host countries pay our costs to remain. We could cut foreign aid to Pakistan, Egypt, Palestine and maybe even to Israel, which uses our money to build unlawful settements in the West Bank.  

All these cited problems can be solved with a coexistence of capitalism and socialism.

Have We All Gone Crazy?

I’ve been noticing significant signs of our insanity. 

We have been told how diversity made this country. We are to forget that the founding fathers and the 43 presidents of our country were all white Christians. This ended only when Barack Obama was elected being neither. He was a great president, but the only diverse one. 

We are told that all colleges need diversity to succeed and that diversity is more important than talent, hard work or excellence. Since the 60s we have been lowering our educational standards to accommodate diverse populations.

I now see more people in various vocations making countless mistakes while being exempt from criticism.

I go to a top hospital which bills me for my share of payment. They first billed the wrong insurance company, then they used the wrong billing code, then they used the incorrect group number and then they billed me incorrectly. This all took place in less than two months.

I live in one of the most crowded cities with a 1.5 million daytime population within 47 square miles, not counting the Presidio. Some need to park their cars.  But two agencies charged with posting no parking signs for moving or construction have ridiculous practices. S.F. DPW responsible for posting signs three days before the effective date, don’t. While construction workers rarely work past 4 p.m. or on Saturdays, they are issued signs going from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday. The parking control department charges the same for one space or five. Some opt for five when only two are needed. Almost no one objects and when these departments are asked to review their policies, they ignore the complaints knowing that they are immune from any consquences. Many residents affected by these failed policies say nothing or perhaps don’t notice them.

Probably the best invention of the 21st century has been the smart phone. It not only can make phone calls, it can also send text messages, show emails and allow for response. They also are timepieces, alarms, stop watches, cameras, video taping devices, games, and access to countless applications. They even can provide lighting. They are amazing, too amazing. Now we cannot get off our smart phones. We look at them while talking in person with others, at restaurants leaving food to grow cold, while walking and while driving. The obsession affects Americans of every age and background.

We have seen a rise in fascism on the right and the left. While those on the far right carry dispicable banners through the streets, the left extremists limit all speech with which they disagree, sometimes violently. They destroy monuments depicting civil war heroes, object to names of football teams, names different groups are called, and want all tributes to our countrie’s leaders ended because they had the attitude toward people in protected classes. They want us forget Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and even Woodrow Wilson. They want New York to be renamed because the namesake also did some things that we today find objectionable. And most do not object to the left wing extremism because at least they are not right wingers. We hate the haters and have no tolerance for the those we label intolerant without ever seeing the irony and hypocricy.

We lambast a predential candidate for making senseless, juvenile remarks about his fantasies about women. We call him a misogynist, but we forget about a past president who continuaslly cheated on his wife, even with a teenager, just out of high school and working as a White House intern. We forget about a more recent president who finally had admit a long extramarital affair, charges of making unwanted sexual advances and having oral sex with a 22 year old intern in the oval office. These two presidents are never called misogynists, because we liked them.

Large groups of Americans are involved in countless protests without realizing that they no effect on policy, but feel proud of their courage.

We want all those who enter our country illegally to be allowed to stay and then become citizens disregarding the tremendous cost of those who ignore our laws and cost us billions. We don’t care that they take jobs away from our least educated who need jobs the most. We are told that these are jobs Americans don’t want but the majority of workers in these fields are Americans

We have the Affordable Care Act, doomed to failure from the start, making signups mandatory, forcing every possible medical situation to be covered and not allowing insurers to reject anyone regardless of their severe, costly medical condition, when a much better option is available which would ernsure that every Ametrican who wants coveraqge can get it and for a reduced cost.

Try to contact your local, state and federal representatives. They will not respond feeling they don’t have to because they are not accountable to voters.

Call your cell phone company and try to get them to increase the volume for incoming calls or to active a free service. They will ask for a PIN number that you can’t possibly know and should not need. Would anyone else request these services for you? We are terrified of identity thieves but go too far to keep everything secret. Try to get your medical test results and you will asked to sign a letter of consent allowing your medical facility to honor your request. Next you will probably be asked to sign a form allowing them to honor your request to have the request honored.

It seems that no one is accountable anymore and they know it.

Have we all gone crazy?

What Has Happened to Cars Sold in America?

I started noticing cars around 1953. The first one that struck me was the 1953 Buick Skylark. It is still the most beautiful Buick ever made and the most valuable. My parents bought only Buicks and Chevrolets. After Wold War II most Jews refused to buy Fords or German-made cars like Mercedes. The cars of choice were General Motors cars like Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Chevys. Chrysler came out with the Imperial and the 300 series. Most cars were available in convertible, hartop sedans, and while many featured station wagons.  

From the mid 50s, Ford produced the Thunderbird , which was a great success. Then Chervrolet came out with the Corvette which were particulary good from the late 50s to 1967 with its gorgeous Stingray.

In those days Pontiacs and Oldmobiles were beautiful and popular. In 1964, Pontiac came out the Lemans and GTO, after growing the Lemans and providing a suped version called the GTO. Later it came out with the Firebird which was also well received. Still most Americans were buying American cars. Oldsmobile came out with the 442 which had horspower and speed. 

American cars seemed to get less appealing in the 70’s and 80’s. While Cadillacs, Buicks and Oldmobiles were still attractive, many other brands lost their appeal. Plymouth and Dodge were never really popular, but the Desoto did well.

In the 70s a Germen car company named Volkwagon became the rage. It was well made, cute and inexpensive. Most people disregarded the fact Hitler ordered Mr. Porsche to make a Volks (Folks) Wagon (car). The best years were the late 60’s and the late 70’s. VW also came out with the Karman Ghia, a beautifully designed and inexpensive Porsche-like car. I had a 67 and loved it, though it wasn’t very fast. Porsche came out with the A, B, and C series with the 1965 SC one of the wolrld’s most beautiful and best selling sports cars. I had a 64 Porsche consvertible. 

During this this time the Swedes entered the market with the 122s and the sports car by Volvo, and P1800. I had a 122s and loved it. Saab came out with the first front wheel drive car.

Meanwhile the British came out with some great sports cars. The TR3 and TR4 were very popular while the successors the TR250 and the TR6 were less successful. Then they came out the TR7, which claimed to be the future. It was adverticed going into a wedge shaped garage emphasizing its wedge shaped design. Unfortunately, it was the shape of the future and also the end for Triumph.

The British came out with the gorgeous but troublesome XK120, XK140, then the XK150, which had roll up windows, and finally the XKE, considered by some to be the beautiful car ever made.They also made some stunning sedans which also were not very reliable.

The British also produced the MG and Austin Healey. When I was in college, in the 60s two friends had MGBs. MG  also came out the Midget. Austin Healy came out the 3000, a sight to behold, and the Sprite, Midget’s cousin. I had an Autin Healey Bugeye Sprite which served me well. Austin Healey also made the Spitfire, a car between the Sprite and the 3000.    

Then, suddenly in the late 60s the MG, Austin Healey and Triuph disappeared. The Brits were left with the Jaguar XKE and the sedan. 

Meanwhile in the late 70’s 80’s and 90’s GM cars were in a steady decline. The companies lost their motivation to keep up their high standards. The Dodge, except for the Charger and Challenger which appealed to fans of the "Dukes of Hazard", Plymouth were never good but they just got worse and had to discontinued as was the Desoto, the best of the three. The Oldsmobile was finally discontinued as was the Pontiac. This left General Motors with just the Cadillac, Buick and Chevy. Ford also had produced nothing noteworthy except for the Thuderbird which became bigger and bigger and was no longer a sportscar. It too died.

While the Bitish were losing most of their car lines including the Jaguar, Rolls Royce and Bentley, with the latter two now owned by VW and BMW resapectively. Their Land Rover is now owned by a company in India.

Then the Japanese and Germans invaded our car market. The Honda was also doing quite well in America. I had a ’79 Honda sedan, which I still think was one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Honda added a luxury car line called Acura which is still a wonderful car. Mazda has also become the up and coming car line.

Toyota became the most popular car in America and it created a luxury line called Lexus, a car that was much admired.

The Germans created luxury lines called BMW, and the longtime Mercedes became much more popular. VW produced several cars and eventually added the Audi to their line and then bought Porsche and Rolls Royce. VW is now the number one carmaker in the world. It used to be General Motors.

Now it seems the American car companies have given up trying to compete with German and Japanese car companies with their family passenger cars. Our two former luxury lines Cadillac and Lincoln, which out with Continentel in the mid 50s that was stunning, both seeing their best days in the mid 50s and 60s. Cadillacs once considered the ultimate in luxury now look commonplace. Ford, GM and Chrysler now depend on selling trucks and SUVs.

No American car company produces station wagons or hard top sedans and sell very few cars with convertible tops,  just Corvette and Camaro. Both lines have degenated since their heyday in the 60’s replacing beauty with horsepower.

So now we can choose between a Chevy and a Buick or buy Japanese and German alternatives like Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Accura and Mazda or the VW line, with the Audi, and the BMW, and Mercedes.

That’s what has happened to cars sold in America. It’s sad.