Exit Strategy from a War??

 Only one exit strategy is acceptable, victory.  Destroy the enemy armed forces, occupy the enemy lands and capital, kill or capture enemy leaders.   Captured enemy leaders to be tried for war crimes.  If we are not prepared to pay the price to bring victory, stay out of the war. 

Down with voting machines. Up with paper ballots

 Voting machines are just desktop computers running an "I-am-a-ballot" program.  They can be hacked over the internet, while stored at city hall, while being set up for election day, and probably twenty other times and places as well.  Paper ballots, marked by the voter get checked by the voter and counted and saved in case of a recount.  Attached is a long screed against voting machines.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/11/02/computer-experts-sound-warnings-safety-americas-voting-machines/6087174002/

Colin Powell dead at 84.

 We have lost a great American.  He served his country for many many years, as a soldier, and later as advisor to presidents and secretary of state.  If he had run for president I would have voted for him. We all miss him. 

How the Fed Finances U.S. Debt.

 Wall St Journal op-ed last Thursday.  Written by Judy Shelton.

Strange article.  Never mentioned US bonds (T-bills).  First it talks about a silly plan to mint a $1 Trillion dollar platinum coin, deposit it in the Federal Reserve, and claim we are solvent.  Even if such a toy were 6 feet across, it would not be worth a TRILLION dollars.  Plus, the Fed can print all the plain old dollar bills that might be needed to redeem T-bills as they come due. 

   Then we have a strange quote from Janet Yellen.  “[It] (the platinum coin thing) is equivalent to asking the Federal Reserve to print money to cover deficits that Congress is unwilling to cover by issuing debt. It compromises the independence of the Fed, conflating monetary and fiscal policy.” 

   Wow!  I, and everyone else in America, expects the Fed to prevent a default on our T-bills by any means possible, selling more T-bills if Congress raises the debt limit, or just printing more Benjamins.  The inflationary effect of selling T-bills is about the same as for printing Benjamins.  T-bills are “near money” according to my old college economics text (Samuelson).  They are nearly as good as cash; investors who pay cash for them know that they can turn their T-bills back into cash any business day.  We run a bond market open 5 days a week, and you can sell your T-bills anytime you please and receive a cash payment within a couple of business days.

  Interesting factoid, The Fed gives the interest it earns on various things it bought to the Treasury.  This was $87 billion last year.  A nice chunk of change. 

  There are more words in the piece, but they are things everyone knows. 

Eaves vs gutter screens

 The TV has been heavily advertising gutter screens, pieces of perforated metal that fit on the top of the gutters, and let the rain water in and block out the leaves.  Cool.  Of course my house does not have gutters at all, so I don't need gutter screens.  I have nice big deep eaves, so the rain water that runs off my roof falls at a decent distance from the house and does not cause my any trouble.  

   The other benefit of good deep eaves is heating and cooling of the house.  My eaves allow the sun to shine in my south facing windows in the winter, and they block the sun in the summer to keep the house cool.  I think every house ought to have good deep eaves. 

A Couple of more good bright trees up in Franconia Notch.

 

 

 

Welfare for lawyers.

 Eight years ago the Tsaernov brothers bombed the Boston Marathon.  They killed three people, injured better than 100 people, including 16 people who lost limbs from the bombing.  The older brother was killed by police during his arrest, the younger brother ,Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was arrested, alive, and given a trial.  The jury found him guilty and condemned him to death.  That was 8 years ago.  For the next 8 years lawyers have been collecting fees to rehash the case.  Today they got their arguments to the US Supreme Court.  How much longer lawyers will be able to collect fees from this case is unknown.  The crime was murder, which is an offense tried and punished by the states.  It is not a federal crime.  Why the Supremes are messing with a state crime and a state court sentence of death, is unclear.  Justice delayed is justice denied.