What a Difference the Media Makes

 

Thinking back just over eight years to the media coverage of the election of President Barack Hussein Obama and his overwhelming Democrat majority in both houses of Congress and with a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and the media was all dreamy-eyed. There was their obvious euphoria which reflected much of the population’s reaction to having elected the first Black President. There was speculation of all the wondrous things to come, universal healthcare, a more perfect society, booming economy, jobs galore, the end of war, historic changes and a better Supreme Court. It was almost ghoulish when some articles even listed three or potentially four older Supreme Court Justices who might pass on or resign during President Obama’s terms in office. Oh yea, and his reelection was already in the bag, the one item which was apparently true. There were no mentions of crime rates, homeless people, drug problems amongst teens and young adults, rampant crime or even mention that some who had voted for Senator John McCain might not be as “in” with the election results. No, there was no mention of them or that they were not happy with the idea of fundamentally changing America and feared they were about to experience a rerun of President Jimmy Carter on steroids. Little did they know but they were also going to get a big dose of President Lyndon Baines Johnson and steamrolling over Congress and a pinch of President Lincoln and his disregard for the limitations of the Constitution. The ride was going too long and especially hard for Strong Conservatives, Religious Traditionalists, Strong Foreign Policy and Constitutional Purists. In most of the media, even presumably conservative Fox News with the only exceptions being some conservatives talk radio and television and editorial page writers who predicted a long cold time in the winter grounds of the political world. They were exiled and shunned with much of the media predicting the end of conservatives and the Republican Party. They were almost correct.

 

The presumed common knowledge that any Republican could and would have defeated Hillary Clinton and done so with a far more definitive vote count in the popular vote and Electoral College. Some doubt this bold and seeming obvious logic and ask if Jeb Bush had been the Republican candidate, would he have done as well or even won? Then counting out Jeb Bush, which of the other fifteen remaining candidates would have won? Would Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki or Jim Gilmore really have drawn voters to the polls in the numbers that Donald Trump? Would any of these have made a bigger spectacle of the media and their bias and used the media against the system as did Donald Trump? Granted, there might have been a select few, no more than three, who would have honestly had a better than even chance of defeating Hillary Clinton using traditional political theater. Republicans should face the fact that Donald Trump really was the choice looking back because Hillary Clinton had the old style game wrapped up and had the funding to bury any Republican message put forth in the traditional manner. Trump won by making news report him and often only him and that was what was necessary to outdo Hillary Clinton and the billions she had to spend. It was being brash and in the face of the media demanding time that gave Trump the edge other candidates would have lacked. Name a single Republican who could have gotten more media than Hillary Clinton and also been considered electable by normative standards, the means all the others with the possible exception of Ted Cruz whose appeal was even more limited than Donald Trump had.

 

Forward to the media after this Electoral College landslide and what are the media covering. Their main stories are “stolen election,” popular vote, Hillary Won, Electors need be allowed to switch to Hillary Clinton, end Electoral College, American democracy (forgetting that America is actually a Constitutional Democratic Republic with the words other than Democratic having the majority of the weight), Russian hacking, Russia backing Trump, and more Hillary Clinton needs to become the winner by any and all means necessary. When not declaring Donald Trump illegitimate, questioning election results, giving slanted or even false stories about delegates changing their vote on the first ballot of the Electoral College (never happened and most delegates are sworn to vote for the declared winner of their state on the first or first two ballots with some having to do so no matter how many ballot votes are necessitated), then they are talking of all the threats and difficulties which President Trump will face. Some news items are talking up the challenges and negatives in society which they have not mentioned for the past eight years, really weird how all these things, low workforce participation, higher than reported unemployment, crime rates climbing, murder rates at all-time highs, foreign problems in the Middle East, especially Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria which were all under control until Trump won because that caused them to explode, Putin, more Putin, and some even decry that Donald Trump was elected President and has done nothing about any of these problems. Truth is Donald Trump will not actually be elected President until next week after the Electoral College votes and sends their results to Congress and then we technically need to wait for Congress to accept the ballots and then he becomes President Elect, probably some time a week before the Inauguration. Oh, another item is that he does not become President until after the swearing in at approximately noon on January 20, 2017 and then he becomes President with absolutely no advisors, Cabinet, or Administration in any working order as he has to present all his appointees for Senate ratification. These are often a simple formality with an occasional debate and extra few days or a week required and rarely is anyone the President desires on his Cabinet turned down. Expect the Democrats to filibuster and try to prevent some, if not many or even a majority, of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointments with the possibility that some will be refused because the Democrats refuse to permit a vote to ratify their appointments. While this is not unheard of, it has not been a practice and the last time there was even doubts was with President Ronald Reagan and we cannot recall any from before that going back to the first republican President, Abe Lincoln, who was the last to have any appointments to his Cabinet debated harshly.

 

Why the problems with the Cabinet. Well, the media has been debating the problem already. President Trump has chosen two Generals, actually three but the third does not require Congressional approval as he will be the National Security Advisor (but he may require release from the seven years required retirement time before serving in government which falls to Congress), both of whom President Obama let go, forced retirement, fired (you choose the description which fits your thoughts as they all end the same way) thus also require waivers as well as approval to their positions. The generals are General James “Mad Dog” Mattis (ret) as Secretary of Defense and General John Kelly (ret) as Secretary of Homeland security (Lt. General Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor). The positions that the media is all hyperventilating over, having retired Generals appointed from the Marines and Army, are hardly positions where having served in a ranking position in the military would exactly be a disqualification and one might claim an advantageous part to have in one’s background. General John Kelly (ret) served largely in intelligence and that General James “Mad Dog” Mattis (ret) was an infantry and combat arms commander who was loved and highly rated by the men who served under him, both as officers and enlisted down to the lowest grunt. Lt. General Michael Flynn also has a background serving in the Defense Intelligence Agency as well as holding Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. General James “Mad Dog” Mattis service history is extensive and reads U.S. Central Command, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, U.S. Marine Forces Central Command, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Commander 1st Marine Division, Commander 7th Marine Regiment, and Commander 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. General John Kelly (ret) served as United States Southern Command, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, and Multinational Force West. We would not be exactly upset, saddened or even perturbed should Donald Trump choose a few more Generals as well as others with extensive military background as we fear that such men and women with such experience are going to become a needed commodity sooner rather than later as the world, especially the Middle East and Europe crumble before our eyes.

 

We can expect much of the media going into hypoxic shock from hyperventilating and potentially passing out with some requiring medical treatment for what will eventually be referred to as TRDS, or Trump Reflexive Distress Syndrome. There is probably no cure but as we understand, it is treated by having the afflicted color in coloring books (neatness not required nor is coloring inside the lines), petting puppies and kittens, hugging warm blankets while suckling on a pacifier or thumb, standing in a corner screaming obscenities at the wall (only for the most severe cases) and the always required stress counselling with a trained and licensed Stress Counsellor. There will continue to be long lists of a litany of troubles, criminal waves, lawless cities, and general disasters worldwide which are the direct result of the Trump victory and also the greatest threats to world societal peace and thus things that a President Trump will be responsible for contending with. Of course there is an instant solution to all these ills, find a way to elect Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump and all these problems would disappear until a Republican would get elected, like that would ever happen in a sane world. See, even we are showing signs of stress due to all those who are suffering from TRDS (Trump Reflexive Distress Syndrome). Those who voted approvingly for Donald Trump and have been celebrating this victory should be advised to not turn on their radios or televisions unless they know and have wisely chosen where and from whom to get their news. Choose incorrectly and your sanity will be rocked by the openly biased partisanship against Trump which is close to universal even across the ocean in Europe the leftists are in shock. There is hope that these people can be settled sufficiently such that they can explode again should Donald Trump even run and especially should he win a second term.

 

TRDS or Trump Reflexive Distress Syndrome

 

Puppies at George Mason University
Picture Care of Washington Post

 

But first, why don’t we all agree to wait and see how he performs before denouncing him as a failure because all these problems are out there and he has not done a single thing. You are correct, but that is because he is not the President yet. If you had truly wanted actions taken on these issues you would have been covering them for the past eight years and wondering where President Obama was on these problems but instead you simply celebrated having won the election because that is what it is all about, winning. President Obama summed up the left when he stated simply to the Republicans when they were intentionally locked out of anything to do with the crafting of Obamacare and he blurted accusingly, “We won!” What an argument over any input on such an overreaching piece of legislation but on the other side, Obamacare is pure Democrat Party crafting and did not receive a single Republican vote in the entire two houses of Congress. Unprecedented, and there you have it.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

State Department and Their Moment of Clarity

 

The United States Department of State released annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – describing the status of religious freedom in every country. This year the report had a remarkable citation which had previously been explained away by blaming the victim and excusing the oppressive doctrinarian persecutor which practiced religious and societal supremacy despite their societal dysfunctionality. The hiccup, if you’ll admit the slang, was a report that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was indeed committing anti-Semitism and broadcasting it on their television and radio broadcasts. There were also criticisms of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia Wednesday for having laws that infringe upon religious freedom citing blasphemy, apostasy and anti-conversion laws. The report succinctly stated, “Such laws conflict with and undermine universally recognized human rights,” referring directly at one state’s actions the report went on to state, “Saudi Arabia penalizes blasphemy with lengthy prison sentences and lashings, often after detention without trial, or so-called protective custody, according to legal experts.” Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken stated at an event announcing the report, “In far too many countries, 2015 witnessed appalling patterns of significant restrictions on religious practice, as well as societal intolerance of, restrictions on and even violence against members of religious minority groups. Bigotry and intolerance can be found in every part of the world, including the United States, but every country has an obligation to respect religious liberty and freedom of conscience.”

 

But in the area of Israel, where we will concentrate our commentary, the report brought some needed fresh air. The State Department, and especially under President Obama, criticizing the PA for their open and blatant anti-Semitism is as surprising as it was welcome. As far as any actual actions or further recognition, that remains to be seen though we expect very little to come of this. Reports are, after all, written to please, aggravate, motivate or mitigate situations while having minimal effect or amelioration before being filed on a shelf next to the report from previous years which had also made new or original bold statement only to settle on the shelf awaiting the next year’s report to brace it from the open end. This report shall be no different and likely be even of less consequence as the elections in the United States will soon suck all the oxygen from the media rooms across the world, be it the United States elections or the German elections by five of sixteen states in the build-up to the next year’s federal vote where it is fully expected to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from a decade of dominance due to the refugee crisis. Changes are coming in Europe and perhaps in the United States as well. All of this we will watch and see and then wait for any changes both local and internationally. Despite belief by President Obama that he controls the fate of the world, this report was likely about the upcoming elections while ignoring their boss, the man holding the world currently.

 

Obama World and he can hold the whole thing like a basketball but just like a basketball he is clueless what to do with it

 

Closer to home at our small corner, and we emphasize small, of the Mediterranean the State Department report will be accepted as a breath of fresh air as a known reality has finally been recognized in writing by what has been and likely remains an adversarial United States Department of State. This report may simply be the State Department setting a note in their records just in case there may be coming a drastic change in the Executive Brach of the United States governance. Despite the hyperventilating over the great lead Hillary Clinton has theoretically built up in the past month according to the United States media, even FOX, in the most respected and neutral polling this past week she held less than a five percent lead, less than a single point in one, over Donald Trump, a lead within the margin of errors. This probably has the great minds at the State Department fearing that the light they see down the tunnel is not the opening to the broad outdoors but the headlamp of an onrushing train and they figure better to be safe than left out on a limb with little support as a new President starts sawing their branch off before they can scamper back saving themselves and their appointed positions. Moving to the center is done by places beyond candidates who have been forced away from the center during a primary challenge. This may be nothing more than centering the State Department ship before it lists so far over they capsize.

 

Then again, perhaps there is another reason for the state department report stating in blatant terms that the PA broadcasts and other activities are peddling anti-Semitism. There is also the possibility that the extremes reached have finally crossed a previously uncrossed level which placed their actions beyond even the State Department’s ability to excuse with their normal euphemisms. The previous State Department reports had blamed the Israeli “occupation” and Israeli “oppressions” and “treatment of the Arab Palestinian” as the reasons for which any hatreds originating from the PA and their society as understandable and even excusable. The fact is official members of the PA governance are making statements over the broadcast channels to instigate further attacks on Israelis anywhere and everywhere including blatantly calling for violence within Israel inside the Green Line in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, Jerusalem, Ashdod as well as Hevron and other areas in Judea and Samaria. Further calls were broadcast calling for Israeli Arabs to attack and murder Israelis and some calls to violence was more general demanding the attacks and terrorism to murder Jews. There were also the calls for rioting on the Temple Mount where there was no difference drawn between Israelis and tourists whether Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or even Shinto. What will remain to be seen is the follow through, should there be one. But will the policies demand of Israeli sacrifices and concessions while forgiving any and every crime committed by the Arabs both under PA rule and Hamas rule in Gaza. One need remember that Hamas was overwhelmingly elected in honest elections over a decade ago by both the Arabs in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria and no elections have been permitted by the ruling Hamas or Fatah, both terror parties, ever since. The Arab Palestinians have what can be laughingly referred to as third world democracy, one person, one vote, one time.

 

Reports recognizing the near universal anti-Semitism and religious hatreds which permeate the Arab world where even minority sects of Islam are denigrated and subjugated to similar treatments as the Christians, Yazidis, Baha’i, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians and other minority religions spread across the Islamic world as well as the Arab world have previously been rare and oft ignored. Reports and even speeches may bring attention to these problems but there needs be actions backing up the words. This will be what needs be watched and see if policies are altered to reflect this report. All of this will depend heavily on the next elections throughout Europe after the first installment of reaching towards three million and possibly as much as five million “refugees” have inundated the continent from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with over one million taking up refuge in Germany alone. The fact that approaching eighty to ninety percent, depending on locations and reports, of these “refugees” being males between the ages of thirteen to forty without women or children accompanying these military age males paints an ominous picture for military planners and security forces alike. Then there were the New Year’s Eve sex crime wave which struck central celebration areas in cities all across Germany and in spotty locations in Scandinavia and other European hot spots, the terrorism increase and a general increase in crime. While what the level of assimilation to which these mostly Muslim immigrants will accomplish with their adopting a more European outlook cannot yet be ascertained but initial data leaves one with an uneasy feeling about the grim prospects of there being any degree of assimilation. Some are blaming the BREXIT on the immigrant crisis where the reason the British voted to leave the European Union was so they could place blockades against further infiltrations. As the “refugees” have yet to penetrate into Scotland and Northern Ireland or the Irish Isles has been stated by those who voted in large sectors from England as the reason these areas are considering rejoining the European Union independently. If these nations from the British group expect that they might be voted from Britain with the English possibly deciding to go it alone relying on the English to act as a cork on the European bottle protecting these nations after they reapply to the European Union from direct infiltrations by MENA refugees halting them at the Chunnel blocking any crossings of the English Channel, they are hoping that the English will be responsible for them while they continue the jolly life as members of the European Union protected from the decisions in Brussels by England, the adults on the islands. The English would be hard pressed to allow the “refugees” to pass through to the northern lands as that would place their presence on both borders making their infiltration a greater danger by far.

 

Meanwhile, Israel likely is going to have this paper, this report by the State Department, touted by the government with every party claiming either their contribution to forcing the admitting of the problem or claiming they will patiently await actions which speak louder than worlds. Those who take credit for the report by the State Department are making grand claims with likely little real or hard evidence of their complicity in the formation of this report. This admission of the sins committed by the PA was and will continue to be just a centering of State Department positions in anticipation of a possible shift in White House positions after the election and thus the adoption of a more nuanced position from which the department can slide whichever direction the President will lean upon arrival. The State Department simply has noted that whichever candidate wins the election, be it Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, there will be little if anything that the State Department will be capable of performing which will alter either candidate’s preferred and preset position vis-à-vis Israel. As for determining the position either candidate will take may appear easy, it also may be less well known or predictable as one might suspect.

 

Our talks with actual Israelis, Sabras (native born Israelis) who have never visited the United States, they are confused as to which candidate will win the election. Many feel that Hillary has this as her election to lose as if she cannot beat Donald Trump then she was not cut out to beat anybody. Many fear Trump as much as they do Clinton. The one thing we have seen as a constant is their asking us what we think will happen and pleading that we grant them good news and reinforce what they already hope for from the elections. One item these Israelis have been made aware of comes through a quote, we like quotes as we cannot be fully blamed for their content, the quote we turn to was reputedly from Joseph Stalin where it was stated in Boris Bazhanov’s Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary, published in 1992 and only available, so far as we know, in Russian where it stated, “You know, comrades that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this, who will count the votes, and how.” When we receive puzzled looks we point to the claims that in certain districts there were more votes tallied than there were registered voters and some have claimed that entire voting districts had absolutely no votes recorded for any candidate other than those for one of the two main parties. This often does not clear their puzzled look as much as add a degree of obvious fear or ominous foreboding to their puzzlement.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Lens that Clears the Vision, Thomas Sowell

 

Whenever one sees an article written by Thomas Sowell one can safely believe it will be entertaining, instructive and likely to clarify to its crystalline essence whatever subject or conjecture on which he is writing. Thus was his recent article on his favorite subject, as he is a renowned economics professor, income inequality and why everything in life is not fair or evenly distributed. He writes on this from varying angles always providing examples which even the lesser and uneducated in economics will fully grasp. His example this time was precious as it showed two examples in one lesson, something he likely intended. Apparently somebody seeking high and low for inequality recently attached onto a new cause célèbre which is as silly as it is laughable, the uneven distribution against women at the highest levels of chess. To use another of Prof. Sowell’s examples, this is like asking why midgets are so underrepresented in the NBA or the NFL, as one would have to conclude there has to be some position they would excel at making them desirable. As Prof. Sowell makes as his main point, not that many women, especially young women in high school or college desire playing chess, not even the most nerdy (my observation), and you find largely male membership in Chess Clubs and competitions. My observation was the under-representation of females on the Math Team in my high school of over three-thousand students where there were two out of twenty plus members on the math team, including one reluctant me (long story includes threats of failing grades from my math teacher and faculty advisor to the math team), and we elected one as the team leader. Still, even representation would have required eighteen additional female students or cutting the team down to two boys and girls and being disqualified as each team must have eight members to compete. If memory serves me correctly, there were no girls, young women, in the chess club or on the team and, knowing the fellow nerds who populated these groups, these boys would have killed to have a young woman, or any woman, join their club and team and such a person would have been treated as a goddess or something close.

 

Professor Thomas Sowell

 

Anyway, back on subject. As Prof. Sowell makes clear, the top positions in chess are computed by games won and lost and against whom. I had an uncle by marriage who was a rated chess master with competition points and he never was able to rise higher than competing in local area and sometimes had qualified for state wide competition but never higher. We played a game of chess; he destroyed me eventually, where he commented that I had a head for the game and played a very disorganized but effective game. He wanted me to start entering tournaments and studying the game seriously. Anyone who knows me knows I take very few things seriously, even politics, and find amusement wherever I can find some. Yes, this presidential race in the United States should provide me entertainment galore, or will it be entertainment of gore? I expect it will be a mud-slinging contest with blood drawn on both sides and whoever wins will emerge a walking wounded with wounds the press will allow to heal or continue shooting at depending who wins. End tangent. Chess positions do not care what gender you are, what race you are, what religion you worship or even if you have a religion at all, they care about your proven record and nothing else. One gains points for every win even if it is minuscule as one would gain beating me in a first round match of the Northwest Israel Chess Tournament, if there is one. I am unranked and likely would need to find a more local tournament, say one from my apartment complex, all two buildings of it, or slightly larger (being in Israel I suspect there is a high density of chess players with any serious players). Should you be ranked and placed against a past champion and lose there might still be points, I am not sure how their ranking points are gained, and should you win there would be a larger number of points than beating little old me. So, if a woman, and my guess is there are many ranked women players even if few if any are in the top ten, were to amass serious points and rise in the ranking then she would rate entering the top level tournaments. This is where things get sticky as one might point out that since men hold the top spots, a woman might be on edge and off her game facing all male competition in a tournament. So what are the tournament managers to do, give her a tranquilizer to calm her, which would definitely be an egregious interference and led to investigations that they were attempting to keep her from winning. Believe it or not, they do not simply give women one-thousand competition points for showing up and men two-hundred-fifty-thousand competition points for showing up. They give points for winning games and only for winning games at the beginning and on throughout competition the big points go to winners and others, well, it’s tough when you lose.

 

As Prof. Sowell points out, life is full of examples of inequities. Jobs, wealth, careers, sports, and any other category one can measure even including numbers of the population and numbers of registered voters, both of which women have the slight advantage of fifty-one or two percent against men being forty-eight or nine percent. Women could elect nearly an all women Congress with at least three-hundred out of four-hundred-thirty-five Representatives and easily sixty-five Senators against thirty-five men. President would equally be a woman should only women support their candidacy. This is an important statistical fact which will be very important in the coming Presidential Election as if for any reason Hillary Clinton does not win the Presidency, it will not be because she was a woman and men did not support her as she would win if women and only women voted for her in high nineties percent so Hillary loses only if she does not win the votes of all women. And do not for a minute think her advisors do not know this as it is partly what is behind the “First woman President” sloganeering which is aimed at the whole of the population but is even more targeting women as with the women’s vote Hillary could win with almost no male votes. Hillary is counting heavily that she can win and force a high turnout of minorities, women high amongst them, and swing as many married women to vote for her despite their husband voting for Trump or third party candidates as splitting the household votes by gender Hillary can win hands down as she knows she likely has the singles vote in her favor. The Presidency is Hillary’s for the taking and if she loses, it will be solely because she was unable to convince sufficient women to vote for her and Trump somehow wooing these women voters. With the accusations against Trump and his public history of divorce and other alleged and some proven activities, he should have some degree of difficulty winning the women’s vote. His one saving grace has been that his hosting of women’s pageants and reality television without even the suspicion of improprieties, there is little proof of him acting in any manner other than respectfully over the years of such involvements. Any such accusations which may appear now seemingly out of the blue, they should be considered to be opportunists or politically motivated attempts to take advantage of his candidacy and probable desire to end such intimidations with minimal publicity. The problem, as we see it, is that even if advised to fold before such challenges as quickly and quietly as possible, Trump will be more likely to take these challenges on directly and very publically when he feels assured of no actual wrong-doing. As far as Trump is concerned, if he can win the suit, he can also play this as campaign advertising of his being above board and forthright in his dealings. This is something we will have to observe as the campaign quickens this fall.

 

There is another front that will be brought to the fore, the companies in which Donald Trump has invested and went bankrupt, some almost immediately. One need know about finances at the level that Donald Trump lives in as they sometimes are purchased companies which have assets or other qualities which are required by other assets. In such instances a failing company can be restructured and made profitable providing it can be purchased or merged with other assets or with a structured payment schedule to meet obligations and thus bankruptcy is a means of saving as much of an investment as is economically sound. These bankruptcies are an intricate and necessary part of investing and making the needed adjustment to gain a return on your investment. It is the same as when one buys a new car and trades their older vehicle as the down-payment. When would you trade in your thirty year old baseline truck which barely functions and has not been driven in ten years, in a regular trade-in or when the dealer offers that if you can drive it in they will give you $5,000.00 in trade-in? The answer is obvious and investments are exactly the same, you do what maximizes your return or, in a bad situation, what minimizes your losses.

 

It would be wise to remember that business is business and politics is not. Politics is all about painting your opponents as the greatest evil the world has ever witnessed. This can be accomplished easily with anyone whose life took place outside of politics as the political world is completely opposite of the business world. In politics it is all about looking at inequalities and promising the masses at the bottom you will give them monies from those at the top. This is due to the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of those at the bottom for everyone to ten at the top. A truth which no politician will tell you is that somebody earning two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars a year is in the top ten percent and those earning over seventy-five-thousand dollars a year are the top twenty-five percent. If minimum wage is pushed to fifteen dollars an hour, that is slightly more than thirty-thousand dollars a year for a forty hour week, that currently in comfortably in the top fifty percent. As it is not possible to have even minimum wage earners be in the top fifty percent, what does one think will be the result? The result is that employers will invest in the construction of robotics to perform these minimum wage jobs just as Wendy’s has already done by replacing cashiers and delivery people from their burger operations and made it an automated system. Similar but less polished systems existed in the 1950’s and were called automat food stores and were big because it was in these years that the minimum wage was increased above the median salary for workers. When this is what happens and those positions which used to be below median salary are forced by minimum wages to be above median, then they will be minimized or erased from the job market as they become unsupportable. When politicians tell you that a company is making undue profit, they are spinning an evil tale that making profit, the driving impetus of all businesses, is an evil when in reality if a business comes close to breaking even and producing no profit, the seeming desire of politicians, then the entire operation comes under inspection and the weaker links are optimized, automated, or cost-lotted out to another company and the people in that department stand for some or all to lose their jobs. Business is in business to make profits and profits tend towards the top but all gain when the company gains as then there are more funds for salaries. All business models have a set percentage they denote as for salaries and the management is tasked with seeing that salaries remain within those guidelines. Often management is granted a bonus for keeping salaries in check and not exceeding their budgeted amount. Anything below budget will then be shared with a set percentage, usually under five percent, is given to the manager for keeping salaries below target. That is simply how business functions at all levels as the vice-president of a company gets a bonuses for keeping costs, including salaries, below target for expenditures, thus giving management limits and limiting managements’ salaries under their control.

 

On another side, when a candidate claims they can control government spending, especially a presidential candidate who is from the business world, they are ignoring an important reality, they answer to Congress as equal branches and not as president to underlings. Congress can adopt an agenda and has the power to overrule a Presidential veto with a two-thirds vote in both houses. Should Trump win the Presidency he will not even have the total support of the Republicans in the Congress and probably none of the Democrats so he will be facing an adversarial Congress and will have only one means of defeating an objectivist Congress, the will of the people. This was what President Reagan used and made possible with his common sense appeals to the people he made during numerous policy speeches he gave in prime time. We expect a President Trump would need to do likewise as his appeal will be dependent on the support of the public. The one thing Trump would have in his favor is that many people who may not have supported his candidacy and voted for Hillary Clinton or one of the third party candidates (leftist liberals all including the Libertarian Party and of course the Green Party) might support some even if not all of his policy positions and thus legislation towards those ends. Where I find Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan to be somewhat a slur, I would change it to “Make America’s Greatness Known (Evident) Again” as a better and more accurate representation as America is still the world’s leading nation despite the efforts of the past eight years. As far as Prof. Sowell might say, we need a President to bring all America into the best and most competitive edge over the rest of the world so America can shine bright again. The secret for doing this is actually simple; America needs to make everything using smarter and more accurate precision and the highest possible quality and dependability and that will place America at the forefront again. America needs to be amongst if not the best over the rest making America worth the extra cost because the product is worth the extra cost. This is why the majority of the world buys American military equipment and how Israel, Britain, Russia, China, Czech Republic, Germany and a select group of others manage to sell their military equipment. Israel triumphs in avionics and command and control systems for military uses while the Czech Republic makes some of the finest accuracy rifles and dependable assault grade weapons and Germany has a high quality main battle tank every bit as good as the American Abrams and the Israeli Merkava and Russia has the best fighter jets per ruble using less technology dependent systems thus easier maintenance. These are simply proof that when you make the best for a certain price range then you will own that market and America needs to reclaim some markets which though not languishing have been inhibited from moving to the next level by regulations and tax policies which do not reward such improvements. That is it plain and simple and do not sweat that somebody makes more money than you, work harder and deserve that money and you will find you too will advance. Sometimes you might even be required to take a different position in your or in another company for a little less or the same but that is just another opportunity to prove oneself and take off from there. After all, you only make master point in chess by beating somebody who already earned their own masters points and the better chess players you can best, the higher the points you will earn and it is all about amassed points and nothing else.

 

Beyond the Cusp